--- title: Halfman sank down under the water from the force of the fall, but be… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Halfman sank down under the water from the force of the fall, but before he touched the bottom a fish came and said to him, ‘Fear nothing, Halfman; I will help you.’ Who acts: Halfman, fish, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/59/) [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 Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/) / 59 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 59 Halfman sank down under the water from the force of the fall, but before he touched the bottom a fish came and said to him, ‘Fear nothing, Halfman; I will help you.’ **Who acts:** Halfman, fish, I · **What happens:** sink down, touch, come, say, help · **To what, where:** water, bottom, Halfman, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Halfman, fish, I), 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:pg641:41:59 # text = Halfman sank down under the water from the force of the fall, but before he touched the bottom a fish came and said to him, ‘Fear nothing, Halfman; I will help you.’ 1 Halfman Halfman PROPN NNP Number=Sing 2 nsubj _ _ 2 sank sink VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 down down ADP RP _ 2 compound:prt _ _ 4 under under ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 water water NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl _ _ 7 from from ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 force force NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 obl _ _ 10 of of ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 fall fall NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 13 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 14 but but CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 15 before before SCONJ IN _ 17 mark _ _ 16 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 17 nsubj _ _ 17 touched touch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 2 parataxis _ _ 18 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 19 det _ _ 19 bottom bottom NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obj _ _ 20 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 fish fish NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj _ _ 22 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 17 parataxis _ _ 23 and and CCONJ CC _ 24 cc _ _ 24 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 22 conj _ _ 25 to to ADP IN _ 26 case _ _ 26 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 24 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 30 punct _ _ 28 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 30 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 29 Fear fear NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 compound _ _ 30 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 24 ccomp _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 32 Halfman Halfman PROPN NNP Number=Sing 30 appos _ SpaceAfter=No 33 ; ; PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 34 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 36 nsubj _ _ 35 will will AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 36 aux _ _ 36 help help VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 2 parataxis _ _ 37 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 36 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 38 . . PUNCT . _ 36 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 36 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **sink down** | past | Halfman | | | the water | | from the force of the fall | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | | 2 | **touch** | past | Halfman | the bottom | | | | | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme bottom=Co-Theme | | 3 | **come** | past | a fish | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a fish *not said here* | | Halfman | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient | | 5 | **help** | future | I | | you | | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary | 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 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/58/) - next →: [sentence 60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/60/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/)