---
title: I would sometimes lie down and let five or six of them dance on my h… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I would sometimes lie down and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls ventured to come and play at hide-and-seek in my hair. Who acts: I, five, last boys. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter III, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I would sometimes lie down and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls ventured to come and play at hide-and-seek in my hair.

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**Who acts:** I, five, last boys · **What happens:** lie down, let, dance, venture, come, play · **To what, where:** hand, hide, hair

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter III. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, five, last boys), 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:pg503:45:3
# text = I would sometimes lie down and let five or six of them dance on my hand; and at last the boys and girls ventured to come and play at hide-and-seek in my hair.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
4	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
8	five	five	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nsubj	_	_
9	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
13	dance	dance	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	_
25	ventured	venture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	hide	hide	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
36	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie down** | would | I |  |  |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **dance** | present | five |  |  | my hand |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on hand=Location |
| 4 | **venture** | past | the last boys and girls |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** | to-infinitive | the last boys and girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **play** | infinitive | the last boys and girls *not said here* |  |  | hide |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **seek** | infinitive | the last boys and girls *not said here* |  |  | my hair |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in hair=Location |

<!-- .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:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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