---
title: But instead of opening it, the young man drove in long nails to make… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But instead of opening it, the young man drove in long nails to make it tighter still; then he took the box on his back and brought it to the king. Who acts: young man, man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But instead of opening it, the young man drove in long nails to make it tighter still; then he took the box on his back and brought it to the king.

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**Who acts:** young man, man · **What happens:** open, drive, make, take, bring · **To what, where:** lid, long nails, box, back, king

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young man, man), 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:pg5615:2:24
# text = But instead of opening it, the young man drove in long nails to make it tighter still; then he took the box on his back and brought it to the king.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	4	mark	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	2	fixed	_	_
4	opening	open	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	nails	nail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	tighter	tight	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	xcomp	_	_
18	still	still	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | gerund | the young man *not said here* | lid |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 2 | **drive** | past | the young man |  |  | long nails |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **make** | to-infinitive | the young man *not said here* | lid |  |  |  | tight *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 4 | **take** | past | man | the box |  | man's back | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent box=Theme on back=Destination |
| 5 | **bring** | past | man *not said here* | lid | the king |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to king=Destination |

<!-- .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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