---
title: The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard out; it was wedged in far too firmly. Who acts: children. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Snow-white and Rose-red, sentence 49

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The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard out; it was wedged in far too firmly.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** do, not get out, wedge · **To what, where:** all, power, beard

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Snow-white and Rose-red. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg503:36:49
# text = The children did all in their power, but they couldn’t get the beard out; it was wedged in far too firmly.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	wedged	wedge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	_
23	too	too	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	firmly	firmly	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the children | all |  | children's power |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **get out** | could | children *= child* | the beard |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wedge** | past · passive |  | beard |  |  |  | firmly *property* | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme in far=Trajectory |

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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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