---
title: But, floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed to ste… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed to steal in, and waited till one of the sisters said to another, who had their one eye: Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed to steal in, and waited till one of the sisters said to another, who had their one eye:

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** float, manage, steal in, wait, say, have · **To what, where:** Shoes, another, one eye · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy), 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:pg503:27:52
# text = But, floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed to steal in, and waited till one of the sisters said to another, who had their one eye:
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	floating	float	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	Shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Swiftness	Swiftness	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
12	just	just	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	managed	manage	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	in	in	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	till	till	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
31	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
33	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **float** | gerund |  |  |  | the Shoes of Swiftness |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on shoe=Trajectory |
| 2 | **manage** | past | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **steal in** | to-infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wait** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | another |  | till one | of the sisters | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to another=Recipient |
| 6 | **have** | past |  | sisters's one eye |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |

<!-- .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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