--- title: The Prince was fortunate enough to be able to lay hold of a floating… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The Prince was fortunate enough to be able to lay hold of a floating spar, and contrived to keep himself afloat; and, after a long struggle with the winds and waves, he was cast upon a strange island. Who acts: Prince. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), pa --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/91/) [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 Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/) / 91 # The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, sentence 91 The Prince was fortunate enough to be able to lay hold of a floating spar, and contrived to keep himself afloat; and, after a long struggle with the winds and waves, he was cast upon a strange island. **Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** be, lay, float, contrive, keep, cast · **To what, where:** hold, sight, strange island, floating spar This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:16:91 # text = The Prince was fortunate enough to be able to lay hold of a floating spar, and contrived to keep himself afloat; and, after a long struggle with the winds and waves, he was cast upon a strange island. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 Prince Prince PROPN NNP Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 cop _ _ 4 fortunate fortunate ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 5 enough enough ADV RB _ 4 advmod _ _ 6 to to PART TO _ 8 mark _ _ 7 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 8 cop _ _ 8 able able ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 conj _ _ 9 to to PART TO _ 10 mark _ _ 10 lay lay VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 xcomp _ _ 11 hold hold NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obj _ _ 12 of of ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 14 floating float VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 15 amod _ _ 15 spar spar NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 17 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 18 contrived contrive VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 19 to to PART TO _ 20 mark _ _ 20 keep keep VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 xcomp _ _ 21 himself himself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 20 obj _ _ 22 afloat afloat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 20 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 23 ; ; PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 24 and and CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 25 , , PUNCT , _ 24 punct _ _ 26 after after ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 28 long long ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 amod _ _ 29 struggle struggle NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obl _ _ 30 with with ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 winds wind NOUN NNS Number=Plur 29 nmod _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 34 waves wave NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 35 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 36 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 38 nsubj _ _ 37 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 38 aux:pass _ _ 38 cast cast VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 4 conj _ _ 39 upon upon ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 40 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 41 strange strange ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 amod _ _ 42 island island NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | the Prince | | | | | enough, fortunate *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | | | | | able *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **lay** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | hold of a floating spar | | | | | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result | | 4 | **float** | gerund | | | | | | | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **contrive** | past | the Prince *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **keep** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* | sight | | | | afloat *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme | | 7 | **cast** | past · passive | | sight | | a strange island | after a long struggle with the winds and waves | | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme upon island=Destination | | 8 | **hold** | | | a floating spar | | | | | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient | 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. **Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/90/) - next →: [sentence 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/92/) - ↑ back to [The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/16/)