---
title: He took hold of it carefully, but in spite of all his caution he tou… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He took hold of it carefully, but in spite of all his caution he touched the wall in trying to pass by some sleeping watchmen. Who acts: emperor. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 20

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He took hold of it carefully, but in spite of all his caution he touched the wall in trying to pass by some sleeping watchmen.

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**Who acts:** emperor · **What happens:** take, touch, try, pass, sleep, hold · **To what, where:** hold, wall, spite, bird, caution

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor), 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:pg7277:52:20
# text = He took hold of it carefully, but in spite of all his caution he touched the wall in trying to pass by some sleeping watchmen.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	14	det:predet	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	caution	caution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
25	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	amod	_	_
26	watchmen	watchman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | emperor | hold of bird |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **touch** | past | emperor | the wall |  | spite of emperor's caution |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wall=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pass** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | emperor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by some sleeping watchmen | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by watchman=Location |
| 5 | **sleep** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **hold** |  |  | bird |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **spite** |  |  | emperor's caution |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

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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 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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