---
title: He swam to and fro, trying to avoid it, but somehow he couldn’t get… — The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient · tree and pragmatics
description: He swam to and fro, trying to avoid it, but somehow he couldn’t get away from it. Who acts: Sin. A sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient, Opening, part 16, sentence 36

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He swam to and fro, trying to avoid it, but somehow he couldn’t get away from it.

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**Who acts:** Sin · **What happens:** swim, fro, try, avoid, not get away · **To what, where:** worm

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This is a sentence of «The Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Opening, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sin), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg65965:16:36
# text = He swam to and fro, trying to avoid it, but somehow he couldn’t get away from it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	swam	swim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	2	obl	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	avoid	avoid	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	somehow	somehow	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
18	away	away	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swim** | past | Sin |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fro** | infinitive | Sin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | Sin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **avoid** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Sin *not said here* | worm |  |  |  |  | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location |
| 5 | **not** **get away** | could | Sin |  |  |  |  | from worm; away, somehow *property* | vn withdraw-82-2 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from it=Source |

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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 Jade Story Book; Stories from the Orient» by Penrhyn Wingfield Coussens, Project Gutenberg book 65965 (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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