---
title: But as soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it, it will scr… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it, it will scream out, and then you must say, “Swan, hold fast.” Who acts: swan, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Magic Swan, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it, it will scream out, and then you must say, “Swan, hold fast.”

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**Who acts:** swan, you · **What happens:** feel, scream out, say, hold · **To what, where:** much, Swan · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (swan, 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:pg7277:23:18
# text = But as soon as the swan feels as much as a finger on it, it will scream out, and then you must say, “Swan, hold fast.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	feels	feel	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obj	_	_
10	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	scream	scream	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	Swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
31	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feel** | present | the swan | much |  |  |  | as a finger on finger; soon *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent much=Theme |
| 2 | **scream out** *speech: express* | future | swan |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | must | you | Swan |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent swan=Topic |
| 4 | **hold** *in a quote* | infinitive | swan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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