---
title: Shrieking with rage, he tried to undo the cord, but he only pulled t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Shrieking with rage, he tried to undo the cord, but he only pulled the knot tighter. Who acts: sorry. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 40

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Shrieking with rage, he tried to undo the cord, but he only pulled the knot tighter.

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**Who acts:** sorry · **What happens:** shriek, try, undo, pull · **To what, where:** cord, knot

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sorry), 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:pg3454:27:40
# text = Shrieking with rage, he tried to undo the cord, but he only pulled the knot tighter.
1	Shrieking	shriek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	rage	rage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	undo	undo	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	tighter	tight	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **shriek** | gerund | sorry *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with rage | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with rage=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | past | sorry |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **undo** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | sorry *not said here* | the cord |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cord=Patient |
| 4 | **pull** | past | sorry | the knot |  |  |  | tight *property* | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knot=Theme |

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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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