---
title: He tried hard to keep awake, but it was of no use, and in the mornin… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He tried hard to keep awake, but it was of no use, and in the morning there he was again on the log, grasping the halter. Who acts: prince, hair. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 132

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He tried hard to keep awake, but it was of no use, and in the morning there he was again on the log, grasping the halter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, hair · **What happens:** try, keep, be, grasp · **To what, where:** log, halter

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, hair), 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:pg641:7:132
# text = He tried hard to keep awake, but it was of no use, and in the morning there he was again on the log, grasping the halter.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
22	again	again	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	log	log	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	grasping	grasp	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	halter	halter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | awake *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | hair |  |  |  |  | of no use and the log | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | prince |  |  | the log | again; morning |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **grasp** | gerund | prince *not said here* | the halter |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer halter=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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