---
title: The lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead int… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead into gold and silver--he looked long and vainly into the mirror; smoke and clouds passed over it, but he saw nothing plain, and the shell to his ear produced only indistinct murmurings, like the breaking of distant seas on an unknown s
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead into gold and silver--he looked long and vainly into the mirror; smoke and clouds passed over it, but he saw nothing plain, and the shell to his ear produced only indistinct murmurings, like the breaking of distant seas on an unknown shore.

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**Who acts:** lad, smoke, shell · **What happens:** try, turn, look, pass, see, produce · **To what, where:** vain, copper, gold, nothing, indistinct murmurings, unknown shore

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Master and His Pupil. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lad, smoke, shell), 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:pg7439:18:7
# text = The lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead into gold and silver--he looked long and vainly into the mirror; smoke and clouds passed over it, but he saw nothing plain, and the shell to his ear produced only indistinct murmurings, like the breaking of distant seas on an unknown shore.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	obl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	crucibles	crucible	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
11	copper	copper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	lead	lead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
23	vainly	vainly	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	into	into	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
28	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	clouds	cloud	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
31	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
32	over	over	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
38	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	37	obj	_	_
39	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	shell	shell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
44	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
45	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	46	nmod:poss	_	_
46	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	_
47	produced	produce	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
48	only	only	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
49	indistinct	indistinct	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	murmurings	murmuring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	like	like	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	breaking	breaking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
56	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	seas	sea	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	nmod	_	_
58	on	on	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
59	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
60	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	61	amod	_	_
61	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the lad |  |  | vain |  | with the crucibles | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **turn** | to-infinitive | the lad *not said here* | copper and lead |  | gold and silver |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent copper=Theme into gold=Trajectory |
| 3 | **look** | past | lad |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **pass** | past | smoke and clouds |  |  | copper |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over it=Location |
| 5 | **see** | past | lad | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 6 | **produce** | past | the shell to lad's ear | indistinct murmurings |  | a unknown shore |  | like the breaking of distant seas | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent murmuring=Result |

<!-- .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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