---
title: But the little tailor was far too weak to hold the tree down, and wh… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the little tailor was far too weak to hold the tree down, and when the giant let go the tree swung back into the air, bearing the little tailor with it. Who acts: little tailor, giant let, tree. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Brave Little Tailor, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the little tailor was far too weak to hold the tree down, and when the giant let go the tree swung back into the air, bearing the little tailor with it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little tailor, giant let, tree · **What happens:** be, hold down, go, swing back, bear · **To what, where:** tree, air, little tailor

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brave Little Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little tailor, giant let, tree), 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:pg503:42:51
# text = But the little tailor was far too weak to hold the tree down, and when the giant let go the tree swung back into the air, bearing the little tailor with it.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	weak	weak	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	giant	giant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	let	let	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	swung	swing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	bearing	bear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the little tailor |  |  |  |  | far, weak *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **hold down** | to-infinitive | the little tailor *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | the giant let |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **swing back** | past | the tree |  |  | the air |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into air=Trajectory |
| 5 | **bear** | gerund | the tree *not said here* | the little tailor |  |  |  | with tree | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tailor=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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