---
title: Neither of them could so much as stir it, but as soon as he touched… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Neither of them could so much as stir it, but as soon as he touched it, away it flew to a distance, though it was ever so big—big as a hill. Who acts: Neither, rope, stone. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Norka, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Neither of them could so much as stir it, but as soon as he touched it, away it flew to a distance, though it was ever so big—big as a hill.

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**Who acts:** Neither, rope, stone · **What happens:** stir, touch, fly, be · **To what, where:** stone

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Norka. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Neither, rope, stone), 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:pg540:13:36
# text = Neither of them could so much as stir it, but as soon as he touched it, away it flew to a distance, though it was ever so big—big as a hill.
1	Neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	8	nsubj	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nmod	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	much	much	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	stir	stir	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
12	as	as	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	31	advmod	_	_
30	so	so	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	conj	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	hill	hill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stir** | could | Neither | stone |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer |
| 2 | **touch** | past | rope | stone |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **fly** | past | stone |  |  |  |  | to a distance *result*; soon *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to distance=Result |
| 4 | **is** | past | stone |  |  |  | ever | big *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** |  | stone *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a hill | 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 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.

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