---
title: Letting go the cord, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Letting go the cord, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors, receiving more than two hundred shots in my face and hands. Who acts: I, cables. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/46/17/)

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 17

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Letting go the cord, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors, receiving more than two hundred shots in my face and hands.

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**Who acts:** I, cables · **What happens:** let, go, cut, fasten, receive · **To what, where:** cord, cables, anchors, hundred shots, face

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, cables), 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:pg503:46:17
# text = Letting go the cord, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that fastened the anchors, receiving more than two hundred shots in my face and hands.
1	Letting	let	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
2	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	resolutely	resolutely	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	cables	cable	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	fastened	fasten	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	anchors	anchor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	receiving	receive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
20	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	23	advmod	_	_
21	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	compound	_	_
23	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	shots	shot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | gerund | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive | I *not said here* | the cord |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cord=Theme |
| 3 | **cut** | present | I | the cables |  |  |  | with my knife; resolutely *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cable=Patient with knife=Instrument |
| 4 | **fasten** | past | the cables | the anchors |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anchor=Patient |
| 5 | **receive** | gerund | the cables *not said here* | hundred shots |  | my face and hands |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent shot=Theme in face=Location |

<!-- .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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