---
title: They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but could not… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who, in the middle of the channel, was under water up to my neck. Who acts: spectacles, ships. 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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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 23

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who, in the middle of the channel, was under water up to my neck.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spectacles, ships · **What happens:** see, move forward, not discern, be · **To what, where:** large half moon, me, middle, water

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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 (spectacles, ships), 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:pg503:46:23
# text = They saw the ships move forward in a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who, in the middle of the channel, was under water up to my neck.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ships	ship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	move	move	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
10	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	discern	discern	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	channel	channel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
32	up	up	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	fixed	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | spectacles *= spectacle* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **move forward** | present | the ships |  |  | a large half moon |  | forward *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in moon=Trajectory |
| 3 | **not** **discern** | could | the ships *not said here* | me |  | the middle of the channel |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | water |  | up my neck | tree rules |

<!-- .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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