---
title: She almost died of misery, and if her sisters had not held her up, s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She almost died of misery, and if her sisters had not held her up, she would have sunk to the ground and cut her head open. Who acts: pig. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/38/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Enchanted Pig](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/) / 38

# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She almost died of misery, and if her sisters had not held her up, she would have sunk to the ground and cut her head open.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pig · **What happens:** die, not hold up, sink, cut · **To what, where:** sisters, head

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pig), 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:pg540:12:38
# text = She almost died of misery, and if her sisters had not held her up, she would have sunk to the ground and cut her head open.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	misery	misery	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	advcl	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
20	sunk	sink	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | pig |  |  |  |  | of misery; almost *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of misery=Causer |
| 2 | **not** **hold up** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | pig's sisters |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sink** | would · perfect | pig |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **cut** | past | pig *not said here* | pig's head |  |  |  | open *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset head=Product |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/39/)
- ↑ back to [The Enchanted Pig](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/12/)