---
title: He had hardly dipped them in the pond when the nixy rose up in the w… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly dipped them in the pond when the nixy rose up in the water, and seizing him in her wet arms she dragged him down with her under the waves. Who acts: hunter, nixy. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 3, with its depend
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, part 3, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hardly dipped them in the pond when the nixy rose up in the water, and seizing him in her wet arms she dragged him down with her under the waves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hunter, nixy · **What happens:** dip, rise up, seize, drag down · **To what, where:** hands, pond, water, hunter, wet arms, waves

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How Six Men Travelled Through the Wide World, 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 (hunter, nixy), 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:pg640:21:5
# text = He had hardly dipped them in the pond when the nixy rose up in the water, and seizing him in her wet arms she dragged him down with her under the waves.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	dipped	dip	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	nixy	nixy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	seizing	seize	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	dragged	drag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	parataxis	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	down	down	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
31	under	under	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dip** | past · perfect | hunter | hands *= hand* |  | the pond |  | hardly *property* | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent they=Theme in pond=Trajectory |
| 2 | **rise up** | past | the nixy |  |  | the water |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in water=Location |
| 3 | **seize** | gerund | the nixy *not said here* | hunter |  | nixy's wet arms |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **drag down** | past | nixy | hunter |  | the waves |  | with her *= she* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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 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.

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