---
title: There was no help for it, and the minister had to push on by himself… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no help for it, and the minister had to push on by himself, if he expected to arrive in time for the christening. Who acts: help, minister. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was no help for it, and the minister had to push on by himself, if he expected to arrive in time for the christening.

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**Who acts:** help, minister · **What happens:** be, have, push on, expect, arrive

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (help, minister), 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:pg641:33:89
# text = There was no help for it, and the minister had to push on by himself, if he expected to arrive in time for the christening.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	push	push	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	expected	expect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	arrive	arrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	christening	christening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no help for way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | the minister |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **push on** | to-infinitive | the minister *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by minister | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent by himself=Trajectory |
| 4 | **expect** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | minister |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **arrive** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | minister *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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