---
title: The difficulties he met with--huge rocks to be climbed, deep rivers… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The difficulties he met with--huge rocks to be climbed, deep rivers to be crossed, and thorny tracts to be avoided--only served to make his heart beat quicker, for he was really brave all through, and not merely when he could not help himself, like a great many people. Who acts: youth, difficulties.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 170

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The difficulties he met with--huge rocks to be climbed, deep rivers to be crossed, and thorny tracts to be avoided--only served to make his heart beat quicker, for he was really brave all through, and not merely when he could not help himself, like a great many people.

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**Who acts:** youth, difficulties · **What happens:** meet, climb, cross, avoid, serve, make · **To what, where:** difficulties, thorny tracts, heart, youth

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, difficulties), 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:pg641:4:170
# text = The difficulties he met with--huge rocks to be climbed, deep rivers to be crossed, and thorny tracts to be avoided--only served to make his heart beat quicker, for he was really brave all through, and not merely when he could not help himself, like a great many people.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	climbed	climb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	thorny	thorny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	tracts	tract	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	avoided	avoid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	served	serve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	beat	beat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
33	quicker	quick	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
38	really	really	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	parataxis	_	_
40	all	all	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	through	through	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
44	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	45	advmod	_	_
45	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
46	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	50	mark	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	50	advmod	_	_
50	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	conj	_	_
51	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
53	like	like	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
54	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
55	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
56	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | youth | the difficulties and huge rocks and deep rivers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent difficulty=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **climb** | to-infinitive · passive | the difficulties and huge rocks and deep rivers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V» |
| 3 | **cross** | to-infinitive · passive | the difficulties and huge rocks and deep rivers *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **avoid** | to-infinitive · passive |  | thorny tracts |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: subject=Location |
| 5 | **serve** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **make** | to-infinitive |  | youth's heart |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset heart=Product |
| 7 | **beat** | present | the difficulties and huge rocks and deep rivers |  |  |  |  | quick *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **is** | past | youth |  |  |  |  | brave, through *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **not** **help** | could | youth | youth |  |  |  | like a great many people; merely *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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