---
title: But pull as hard as they might they could not drag him out of the ho… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But pull as hard as they might they could not drag him out of the hole, and at last they gave it up and left him, with his ear very much torn and scratched. Who acts: beasts. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/35/60/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But pull as hard as they might they could not drag him out of the hole, and at last they gave it up and left him, with his ear very much torn and scratched.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beasts · **What happens:** pull, not drag, give up, leave, tear, scratch · **To what, where:** hare, hole, last

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beasts), 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:pg5615:35:60
# text = But pull as hard as they might they could not drag him out of the hole, and at last they gave it up and left him, with his ear very much torn and scratched.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	pull	pull	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	very	very	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	much	much	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	torn	tear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	advcl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	scratched	scratch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull** | present |  |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **drag** | could | beasts *= beast* | hare |  | the hole |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent he=Theme out hole=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **give up** | past | beasts *= beast* | hole |  | last |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Source |
| 4 | **leave** | past | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  | hare |  |  | with hare's ear | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Recipient with ear=Theme |
| 5 | **tear** | participle | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **scratch** | participle | beasts *= beast* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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