---
title: They gave themselves a great deal of trouble, but in vain; the twigs… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They gave themselves a great deal of trouble, but in vain; the twigs and fruit bent back every time from their hands. Who acts: sisters. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Little One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes, sentence 102

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They gave themselves a great deal of trouble, but in vain; the twigs and fruit bent back every time from their hands.

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**Who acts:** sisters · **What happens:** give, bend back, deal · **To what, where:** sisters, fruit, trouble

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sisters), 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:pg7277:40:102
# text = They gave themselves a great deal of trouble, but in vain; the twigs and fruit bent back every time from their hands.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	_
19	back	back	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	21	det	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | sisters *= sister* | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | the twigs and fruit *obl* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Recipient deal=Theme |
| 2 | **bend back** | participle |  | fruit *not said here* |  |  | time |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **deal** |  |  | trouble |  |  |  |  | nom deal «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:** «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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