---
title: He could not help admiring everything he saw, and the deft way in wh… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He could not help admiring everything he saw, and the deft way in which the hands waited on him, though they sometimes appeared so suddenly that they made him jump. Who acts: Love, deft way, hands. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He could not help admiring everything he saw, and the deft way in which the hands waited on him, though they sometimes appeared so suddenly that they made him jump.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Love, deft way, hands · **What happens:** not help, admire, see, wait, appear, make · **To what, where:** deft way, everything, Love

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Love, deft way, hands), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:23:29
# text = He could not help admiring everything he saw, and the deft way in which the hands waited on him, though they sometimes appeared so suddenly that they made him jump.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	admiring	admire	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	5	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	deft	deft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
18	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	25	advmod	_	_
25	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	so	so	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
31	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	jump	jump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **help** | could | Love | the deft way |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **admire** *not said to happen* | gerund | the deft way *not said here* | everything |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | Love |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **wait** | past | the hands |  |  | the deft way |  | on Love | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in which=Location |
| 5 | **appear** | past | hands *= hand* |  |  |  |  | sometimes, suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **make** | past | hands *= hand* | Love |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **jump** | infinitive | Love *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 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.

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