---
title: It was a lucky thing that Hans had his walking-stick with him that d… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a lucky thing that Hans had his walking-stick with him that day, and had just time to catch hold of it when he felt Old Eric’s claws in his neck, so when they got down to the bottom he said, ‘Stop now, just wait a little; here is solid ground.’ Who acts: bottom, Hans, claws, solid ground. A s
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 58

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It was a lucky thing that Hans had his walking-stick with him that day, and had just time to catch hold of it when he felt Old Eric’s claws in his neck, so when they got down to the bottom he said, ‘Stop now, just wait a little; here is solid ground.’

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**Who acts:** bottom, Hans, claws, solid ground · **What happens:** be, have, catch, feel, get down, say · **To what, where:** lucky thing, hold, Old claws, neck, bottom, little · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bottom, Hans, claws, solid ground), 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:pg5615:13:58
# text = It was a lucky thing that Hans had his walking-stick with him that day, and had just time to catch hold of it when he felt Old Eric’s claws in his neck, so when they got down to the bottom he said, ‘Stop now, just wait a little; here is solid ground.’
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	lucky	lucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	obj	_	_
7	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
10	walking	walking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	_
15	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
16	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
20	just	just	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl	_	_
24	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nmod	_	_
27	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
30	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
31	Eric	Eric	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’s	's	PART	POS	_	31	case	_	_
33	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
38	so	so	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
39	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	41	advmod	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
42	down	down	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
43	to	to	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	bottom	bottom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
46	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	45	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
49	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	50	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	Stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	ccomp	_	_
51	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	50	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
53	just	just	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	_
54	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	conj	_	_
55	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	58	punct	_	_
58	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	parataxis	_	_
59	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	58	cop	_	_
60	solid	solid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | bottom | a lucky thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Hans | a lucky thing |  |  | day |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **catch** | to-infinitive |  | hold of bottom |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 5 | **feel** | past | Hans | Eric's Old claws |  | Hans's neck |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent claw=Theme in neck=Location |
| 6 | **get down** | past | claws *= claw* |  |  |  |  | to the bottom *result*; down *property* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to bottom=Result |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Hans | the bottom *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **stop** | infinitive |  |  |  |  | now |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 9 | **wait** | infinitive |  | a little |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **is** | present | solid ground |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 11 | **hold** |  |  | bottom |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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