---
title: We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves; and in abo… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves; and in about half an hour the boat was upset by a sudden squall. Who acts: We, sudden squall. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter I, sentence 13

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We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves; and in about half an hour the boat was upset by a sudden squall.

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**Who acts:** We, sudden squall · **What happens:** trust, upset · **To what, where:** ourselves, mercy, boat

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter I. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (We, sudden squall), 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:pg503:43:13
# text = We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves; and in about half an hour the boat was upset by a sudden squall.
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	trusted	trust	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	mercy	mercy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	about	about	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	17	det:predet	_	_
16	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	upset	upset	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	sudden	sudden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	squall	squall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **trust** | past | We | ourselves | the mercy of the waves |  |  | therefore *property* | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent ourselves=Theme to mercy=Recipient |
| 2 | **upset** | past · passive | a sudden squall | the boat |  |  | hour |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |

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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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