---
title: She took the knife and tried to strike the youth, and he even tried… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She took the knife and tried to strike the youth, and he even tried to cut himself with it, but found it impossible. Who acts: maiden, finger. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 124

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She took the knife and tried to strike the youth, and he even tried to cut himself with it, but found it impossible.

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**Who acts:** maiden, finger · **What happens:** take, try, strike, cut, find · **To what, where:** knife, youth, finger

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (maiden, finger), 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:pg640:5:124
# text = She took the knife and tried to strike the youth, and he even tried to cut himself with it, but found it impossible.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	even	even	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obj	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	impossible	impossible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | maiden | the knife |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | past | maiden *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **strike** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | maiden *not said here* | the youth |  |  |  |  | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent youth=Patient |
| 4 | **try** | past | finger |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **cut** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | finger *not said here* | finger |  |  |  | with knife | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient with it=Instrument |
| 6 | **find** | past | maiden *not said here* | knife |  |  |  | impossible *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

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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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