---
title: But the crab cut through its neck as clean as one would cut a lotus-… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But the crab cut through its neck as clean as one would cut a lotus-stalk with a hunting-knife, and then only entered the water! Who acts: one. 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 133

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the crab cut through its neck as clean as one would cut a lotus-stalk with a hunting-knife, and then only entered the water!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** one · **What happens:** cut, enter · **To what, where:** crab, lotus stalk, water

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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 (one), 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:pg7128:11:133
# text = But the crab cut through its neck as clean as one would cut a lotus-stalk with a hunting-knife, and then only entered the water!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	through	through	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	lotus	lotus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	stalk	stalk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut** | participle |  | the crab *not said here* |  |  |  | through pond's neck | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent through neck=Patient |
| 2 | **cut** | would | one | a lotus stalk |  |  |  | with a hunting knife | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stalk=Patient with knife=Instrument |
| 3 | **enter** | past | one *not said here* | the water |  |  | then |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Destination |

<!-- .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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