---
title: When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he let his foot down… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden died. Who acts: otter, sea maiden. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Sea-maiden, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/21/173/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / [The Sea-maiden](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/21/) / 173

# Celtic Fairy Tales, The Sea-maiden, sentence 173

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden died.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** otter, sea maiden · **What happens:** get, let down, die, hold · **To what, where:** hold, hands, foot, egg, hand

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (otter, sea maiden), 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:pg7885:21:173
# text = When he got hold of her hand in both his hands, he let his foot down on the egg, and the sea-maiden died.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	both	both	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc:preconj	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	egg	egg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | otter | hold of wife's hand |  | otter's hands |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 2 | **let down** | past | otter | otter's foot |  | the egg |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent foot=Theme on egg=Asset |
| 3 | **die** | past | the sea maiden |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **hold** |  |  | wife's hand |  |  |  |  | nom hold «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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 172](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/21/172/)
- next →: [A Legend of Knockmany, 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/22/1/)
- ↑ back to [The Sea-maiden](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/21/)