---
title: Nix Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the wa… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: Nix Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the water with his pail, but the lake was never getting any less, and he didn't know what to do; but the giant's daughter called on all the fish in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it dry. Who acts: Nothing, l
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 39

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Nix Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the water with his pail, but the lake was never getting any less, and he didn't know what to do; but the giant's daughter called on all the fish in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it dry.

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**Who acts:** Nothing, lake, giant, daughter, fish · **What happens:** begin, try, lave, not get, not know, do · **To what, where:** water, lake · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, lake, giant, daughter), 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:pg7439:12:39
# text = Nix Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the water with his pail, but the lake was never getting any less, and he didn't know what to do; but the giant's daughter called on all the fish in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it dry.
1	Nix	Nix	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Nought	nought	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	3	compound	_	_
3	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
6	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	lave	lave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	pail	pail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
24	any	any	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	31	advmod	_	_
31	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
32	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	obj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
36	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	's	's	PART	POS	_	38	case	_	_
40	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
41	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
42	on	on	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	45	det:predet	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	fish	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
46	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	_
49	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
50	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	advcl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	conj	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	60	punct	_	_
56	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	60	cc	_	_
57	very	very	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	_
58	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	60	advmod	_	_
59	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	nsubj	_	_
60	drank	drink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
61	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	obj	_	_
62	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Nothing |  |  |  | morning | early *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **try** | past | Nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **lave** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Nothing *not said here* | the water |  |  |  | with giant's pail | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **get** | past · progressive | the lake |  |  |  |  | less *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | giant |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **do** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 7 | **call** | participle | the giant's daughter |  |  |  |  | on all fish in the sea | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **come** | to-infinitive | the giant's daughter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **drink** | infinitive | the giant's daughter *not said here* | the water |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient |
| 10 | **drink** | past | fish | lake |  |  |  | dry, soon *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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