--- title: The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to make the mill… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to make the mill stop, but, howsoever he turned it and screwed it, the mill went on grinding, and in a short time the pottage rose so high that the man was like to be drowned. Who acts: man, mill, pottage. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by And --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/41/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/) / 41 # The Blue Fairy Book, Why the Sea Is Salt, sentence 41 The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to make the mill stop, but, howsoever he turned it and screwed it, the mill went on grinding, and in a short time the pottage rose so high that the man was like to be drowned. **Who acts:** man, mill, pottage · **What happens:** twist, turn, do, make, stop, screw · **To what, where:** pottage, all, mill, grinding This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Why the Sea Is Salt. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, mill, pottage), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:20:41 # text = The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to make the mill stop, but, howsoever he turned it and screwed it, the mill went on grinding, and in a short time the pottage rose so high that the man was like to be drowned. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 twisted twist VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 and and CCONJ CC _ 5 cc _ _ 5 turned turn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 6 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 did do VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 10 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 9 obj _ _ 11 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 nsubj _ _ 12 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 10 nmod _ _ 13 to to PART TO _ 14 mark _ _ 14 make make VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 advcl _ _ 15 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 mill mill NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 17 stop stop VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 14 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 19 but but CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 20 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 21 howsoever howsoever ADV RB _ 23 advmod _ _ 22 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 23 turned turn VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 24 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 obj _ _ 25 and and CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 26 screwed screw VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 23 conj _ _ 27 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 mill mill NOUN NN _ 31 nsubj _ _ 31 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 32 on on ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 33 grinding grinding NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 42 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 36 in in ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 39 det _ _ 38 short short ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 39 amod _ _ 39 time time NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 obl _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 pottage pottage NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 nsubj _ _ 42 rose rise VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 43 so so ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 44 high high ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 xcomp _ _ 45 that that SCONJ IN _ 49 mark _ _ 46 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 47 det _ _ 47 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 49 nsubj _ _ 48 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 49 cop _ _ 49 like like ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 44 advcl _ _ 50 to to PART TO _ 52 mark _ _ 51 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 52 aux:pass _ _ 52 drowned drown VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 49 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 53 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **twist** | past | the man | | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **turn** | past | the man *not said here* | pottage | | | | | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 3 | **do** | past | the man *not said here* | all | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Eventuality | | 4 | **make** | to-infinitive | the man *not said here* | the mill | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **stop** | infinitive | the mill *not said here* | | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 6 | **turn** | past | mill | pottage | | | | howsoever *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme | | 7 | **screw** | past | mill *not said here* | pottage | | | | | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | | 8 | **go** | past | the mill | | | grinding | | | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on grinding=Location | | 9 | **rise** | past | the pottage | | | | time | high *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 10 | **is** | past | the man | | | | | like *property* | tree rules | | 11 | **drown** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive | the man *not said here* | | | | | | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP» | 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. **Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/40/) - next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/42/) - ↑ back to [Why the Sea Is Salt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/20/)