---
title: I hailed her, but could get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I hailed her, but could get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened; and in half an hour she spied me, and discharged a gun. Who acts: I, wind. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter V, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter V, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I hailed her, but could get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened; and in half an hour she spied me, and discharged a gun.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, wind · **What happens:** hail, get, find, gain, slacken, spy · **To what, where:** vessel, answer, me, gun · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter V. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, wind), 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:pg503:47:19
# text = I hailed her, but could get no answer; yet I found I gained upon her, for the wind slackened; and in half an hour she spied me, and discharged a gun.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	hailed	hail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	gained	gain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	slackened	slacken	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	28	det:predet	_	_
27	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	discharged	discharge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	advcl	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	gun	gun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hail** | past | I | vessel |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 2 | **get** | could | I *not said here* | no answer |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer answer=Stimulus |
| 3 | **find** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **gain** | past | I |  |  |  |  | upon vessel | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **slacken** | past | the wind |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 6 | **spy** | past | wind | me |  |  | hour |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer i=Stimulus |
| 7 | **discharge** | participle | wind *not said here* | a gun |  |  |  |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gun=Theme |

<!-- .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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