---
title: If I were to fasten your thumbs behind your back with a stout silk c… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If I were to fasten your thumbs behind your back with a stout silk cord, could you wrench yourself free?” Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale), sentence 35

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If I were to fasten your thumbs behind your back with a stout silk cord, could you wrench yourself free?”

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** fasten, wrench · **To what, where:** thumbs, back, yourself

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princes and Their Beasts (lithuanian Fairy Tale). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg641:5:35
# text = If I were to fasten your thumbs behind your back with a stout silk cord, could you wrench yourself free?”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	fasten	fasten	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
6	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	thumbs	thumb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	stout	stout	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	wrench	wrench	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
20	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
21	free	free	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fasten** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | your thumbs |  | your back |  | with a stout silk cord | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent thumb=Patient with cord=Co-Patient |
| 2 | **wrench** | could | you | yourself |  |  |  | free *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer yourself=Patient |

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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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