---
title: Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it, but it was soon v… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it, but it was soon very clear that single-handed he could never hope to accomplish it in the time. Who acts: Jesper, it. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 84

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it, but it was soon very clear that single-handed he could never hope to accomplish it in the time.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Jesper, it · **What happens:** sit down, try, do, be, hand, not hope · **To what, where:** despair

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jesper, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:24:84
# text = Then he sat down and tried what he could do at it, but it was soon very clear that single-handed he could never hope to accomplish it in the time.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
18	very	very	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	clear	clear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
21	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	advcl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	hope	hope	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	csubj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | Jesper |  |  |  | then |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **try** | past | Jesper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **do** | could | Jesper |  |  | despair |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | clear, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **hand** | participle | Jesper *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **hope** | could | Jesper |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 7 | **accomplish** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Jesper *not said here* | despair |  |  | time |  | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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