---
title: In despair I threw myself on the ground, and instantly sank in it as… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In despair I threw myself on the ground, and instantly sank in it as far as my waist. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/55/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Finest Liar in the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/) / 55

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In despair I threw myself on the ground, and instantly sank in it as far as my waist.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** throw, sink · **To what, where:** myself, despair, ground

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg641:3:55
# text = In despair I threw myself on the ground, and instantly sank in it as far as my waist.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	instantly	instantly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	sank	sink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	as	as	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | past | I | myself |  | despair |  | on the ground | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent myself=Theme in despair=Destination |
| 2 | **sink** | past | I *not said here* |  |  | ground |  | far, instantly *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/54/)
- next →: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/56/)
- ↑ back to [The Finest Liar in the World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/3/)