---
title: The General tried them; but he could not loose them; and at last the… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The General tried them; but he could not loose them; and at last there was no one about the house but had tried to take the heads off the knot, but they could not. Who acts: General. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-maiden, sentence 133

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The General tried them; but he could not loose them; and at last there was no one about the house but had tried to take the heads off the knot, but they could not.

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**Who acts:** General · **What happens:** try, not lose, take · **To what, where:** hail, heads, knot

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (General), 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:pg7885:21:133
# text = The General tried them; but he could not loose them; and at last there was no one about the house but had tried to take the heads off the knot, but they could not.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	General	General	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	loose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	_
16	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	knot	knot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
37	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | the General | hail |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **lose** | could | General | hail |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 3 | **try** | past · perfect | General *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **take** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | General *not said here* | the heads |  | the knot |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent head=Theme off knot=Initial\_Location |

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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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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