--- title: But necessity is the mother of invention: Hans threw off his fur coa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But necessity is the mother of invention: Hans threw off his fur coat, gathered up the silver ashes so carefully in it that none remained behind, laid the gold sticks on top, and tied up the bag thus made with his girdle, so that nothing should fall out. Who acts: necessity, Hans, none, gold. A sent --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/82/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/) / 82 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 82 But necessity is the mother of invention: Hans threw off his fur coat, gathered up the silver ashes so carefully in it that none remained behind, laid the gold sticks on top, and tied up the bag thus made with his girdle, so that nothing should fall out. **Who acts:** necessity, Hans, none, gold, nothing · **What happens:** be, throw off, gather up, remain, lay, stick · **To what, where:** mother, fur coat, necessity, silver ashes, top, bag This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (necessity, Hans, none, gold), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:25:82 # text = But necessity is the mother of invention: Hans threw off his fur coat, gathered up the silver ashes so carefully in it that none remained behind, laid the gold sticks on top, and tied up the bag thus made with his girdle, so that nothing should fall out. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 2 cc _ _ 2 necessity necessity NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nsubj _ _ 3 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 mother mother NOUN NN Number=Sing 0 root _ _ 6 of of ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 invention invention NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 8 : : PUNCT : _ 10 punct _ _ 9 Hans Hans PROPN NNP Number=Sing 10 nsubj _ _ 10 threw throw VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 11 off off ADP RP _ 10 compound:prt _ _ 12 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 14 nmod:poss _ _ 13 fur fur NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 compound _ _ 14 coat coat NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 15 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 16 gathered gather VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 conj _ _ 17 up up ADP RP _ 16 compound:prt _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 19 silver silver NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 compound _ _ 20 ashes ash NOUN NNS Number=Plur 16 obj _ _ 21 so so ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 22 carefully carefully ADV RB _ 10 advmod _ _ 23 in in ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 10 obl _ _ 25 that that SCONJ IN _ 27 mark _ _ 26 none none PRON NN PronType=Neg 27 nsubj _ _ 27 remained remain VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 10 advcl _ _ 28 behind behind ADV RB _ 27 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 29 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 30 laid lay VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 conj _ _ 31 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 gold gold NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 nsubj _ _ 33 sticks stick VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 30 ccomp _ _ 34 on on ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 35 top top NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 38 punct _ _ 37 and and CCONJ CC _ 38 cc _ _ 38 tied tie VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 10 conj _ _ 39 up up ADP RP _ 38 compound:prt _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 bag bag NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obj _ _ 42 thus thus ADV RB _ 43 advmod _ _ 43 made make VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 41 acl _ _ 44 with with ADP IN _ 46 case _ _ 45 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 46 nmod:poss _ _ 46 girdle girdle NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 47 , , PUNCT , _ 52 punct _ _ 48 so so SCONJ IN ExtPos=SCONJ 52 mark _ _ 49 that that SCONJ IN _ 48 fixed _ _ 50 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 52 nsubj _ _ 51 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 52 aux _ _ 52 fall fall VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 38 advcl _ _ 53 out out ADP RP _ 52 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 54 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is a** | present | necessity | the mother | | | | of invention | tree rules | | 2 | **throw off** | past | Hans | friend's fur coat | | necessity | | carefully *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent coat=Theme in it=Destination | | 3 | **gather up** | past | Hans *not said here* | the silver ashes | | | | | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ash=Theme | | 4 | **remain** | participle | none | | | | | behind *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **lay** | past | Hans *not said here* | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **stick** | present | the gold | | | top | | | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on top=Destination | | 7 | **tie up** | participle | Hans *not said here* | the bag | | | | | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=Patient | | 8 | **make** | participle | | the bag *not said here* | | | | with friend's girdle; thus *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset | | 9 | **fall out** | should | nothing | | | | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/81/) - next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/83/) - ↑ back to [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/)