---
title: Then said the crab to himself, "If this fellow once got hold of fish… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said the crab to himself, "If this fellow once got hold of fish, he would never let them go in a pond! Who acts: fellow, fish. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then said the crab to himself, "If this fellow once got hold of fish, he would never let them go in a pond!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fellow, fish · **What happens:** say, get, not let, go, hold · **To what, where:** crab, hold, fish, pond · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fellow, fish), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7128:11:109
# text = Then said the crab to himself, "If this fellow once got hold of fish, he would never let them go in a pond!
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	11	advmod	_	_
13	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past |  | the crab | crab |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | this fellow | hold of fish |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **let** *in a quote* | would | fellow | fish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | fish *not said here* |  |  | a pond |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in pond=Location |
| 5 | **hold** *in a quote* |  |  | fish |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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