---
title: It was encircled by a muddy ditch, and a little further on was a tin… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was encircled by a muddy ditch, and a little further on was a tiny thatched cottage, out of which came the Yellow Dwarf with a very jaunty air. Who acts: muddy ditch. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 1, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was encircled by a muddy ditch, and a little further on was a tiny thatched cottage, out of which came the Yellow Dwarf with a very jaunty air.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** muddy ditch · **What happens:** encircle, thatch, be, come · **To what, where:** door, tiny thatched cottage

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (muddy ditch), 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:pg503:5:55
# text = It was encircled by a muddy ditch, and a little further on was a tiny thatched cottage, out of which came the Yellow Dwarf with a very jaunty air.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	encircled	encircle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	muddy	muddy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	ditch	ditch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
12	further	far	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	thatched	thatch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	out	out	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	Yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	Dwarf	Dwarf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
27	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	jaunty	jaunty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **encircle** | past · passive | a muddy ditch | door |  |  |  | far *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **thatch** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  | a tiny thatched cottage |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **come** | past |  |  |  |  |  | with a jaunty air | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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