---
title: The young man did not try to escape, he knew it was useless, and san… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The young man did not try to escape, he knew it was useless, and sank on his knees and closed his eyes. Who acts: young man, man, power. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/48/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 48

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The young man did not try to escape, he knew it was useless, and sank on his knees and closed his eyes.

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**Who acts:** young man, man, power · **What happens:** not try, escape, know, be, sink, close · **To what, where:** knees, eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young man, man, power), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3454:26:48
# text = The young man did not try to escape, he knew it was useless, and sank on his knees and closed his eyes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	useless	useless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	closed	close	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **try** | past · do-support | the young man |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **escape** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the young man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | power |  |  |  |  | useless *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sink** | past | man *not said here* |  |  | man's knees |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **close** | past | man *not said here* | man's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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