---
title: On went the boat, the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as h… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On went the boat, the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as he could: no one should say of him afterwards that he had flinched. Who acts: poor Tin soldier, one, tunnel. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On went the boat, the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as he could: no one should say of him afterwards that he had flinched.

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**Who acts:** poor Tin soldier, one, tunnel · **What happens:** go, keep, say, flinch · **To what, where:** boat, tunnel · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor Tin soldier, one, tunnel), 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:pg640:50:56
# text = On went the boat, the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as he could: no one should say of him afterwards that he had flinched.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
8	Tin	Tin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
11	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	acl	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	stiff	stiff	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	flinched	flinch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past |  | the boat |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location boat=Theme |
| 2 | **keep** | gerund | the poor Tin soldier *not said here* | tunnel |  |  |  | stiff *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | should | no one |  |  |  |  | of tunnel; afterwards *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **flinch** | past · perfect | tunnel |  |  |  |  |  | vn flinch-40.5 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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