---
title: He swam up to the plant and began to loosen its roots, but so firmly… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He swam up to the plant and began to loosen its roots, but so firmly were they fixed in the mud and reeds that this took him a long time. Who acts: prince, this. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He swam up to the plant and began to loosen its roots, but so firmly were they fixed in the mud and reeds that this took him a long time.

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**Who acts:** prince, this · **What happens:** swim up, begin, loosen, fix, reed, take · **To what, where:** plant, roots, mud, prince

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, this), 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:pg503:26:111
# text = He swam up to the plant and began to loosen its roots, but so firmly were they fixed in the mud and reeds that this took him a long time.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	up	up	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	plant	plant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	loosen	loosen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	fixed	fix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	reeds	reed	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	nsubj	_	_
27	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim up** | past | prince |  |  | the plant |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to plant=Destination |
| 2 | **begin** | past | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **loosen** | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* | plant's roots |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent root=Patient |
| 4 | **fix** | past · passive |  | roots *= root* |  | the mud |  | firmly *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **reed** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **take** | past | this |  | prince |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |

<!-- .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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