---
title: Many knights had come from afar to try their luck, but it was in vai… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Many knights had come from afar to try their luck, but it was in vain they attempted to climb the mountain. Who acts: luck, knights. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1, sentence 6

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Many knights had come from afar to try their luck, but it was in vain they attempted to climb the mountain.

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**Who acts:** luck, knights · **What happens:** come, try, be, attempt, climb · **To what, where:** Many knights, luck, mountain

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Glass Mountain(16), part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (luck, knights), 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:pg640:22:6
# text = Many knights had come from afar to try their luck, but it was in vain they attempted to climb the mountain.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	knights	knight	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	afar	afar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	attempted	attempt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	climb	climb	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	mountain	mountain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · perfect · passive |  | Many knights |  |  |  | afar *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | to-infinitive |  | knights's luck |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent luck=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | past | luck |  |  |  |  | vain *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **attempt** | past | knights *= knight* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **climb** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | knights *= knight* *not said here* | the mountain |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location mountain=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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