---
title: But nothing he could say altered her determination, and at last he d… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But nothing he could say altered her determination, and at last he drew his sword, and desperately, with a trembling hand, cut off the little white head. Who acts: task, trembling hand, Blanchette. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 2, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But nothing he could say altered her determination, and at last he drew his sword, and desperately, with a trembling hand, cut off the little white head.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task, trembling hand, Blanchette · **What happens:** say, alter, draw, tremble, cut off, determine · **To what, where:** nothing, sword, last, little white head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task, trembling hand, Blanchette), 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:pg503:24:54
# text = But nothing he could say altered her determination, and at last he drew his sword, and desperately, with a trembling hand, cut off the little white head.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	altered	alter	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	determination	determination	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	desperately	desperately	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	amod	_	_
24	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
27	off	off	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | task |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **alter** | participle · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **draw** | past | task | task's sword |  | last |  | with a trembling hand; desperately *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=Theme |
| 4 | **tremble** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **cut off** | participle | a trembling hand *not said here* | the little white head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 6 | **determine** |  | Blanchette |  |  |  |  |  | nom determination «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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