---
title: While Minnikin was now standing there looking about him, he cast his… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While Minnikin was now standing there looking about him, he cast his eye on a large chest. Who acts: Minnikin. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 3, sentence 47

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While Minnikin was now standing there looking about him, he cast his eye on a large chest.

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**Who acts:** Minnikin · **What happens:** stand, look, cast · **To what, where:** eye, large chest

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minnikin), 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:pg540:46:47
# text = While Minnikin was now standing there looking about him, he cast his eye on a large chest.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	Minnikin	Minnikin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
7	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	cast	cast	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	chest	chest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | Minnikin |  |  | there | now |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | Minnikin *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about Minnikin | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about he=Theme |
| 3 | **cast** | past | Minnikin | Minnikin's eye |  | a large chest |  |  | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent eye=Theme on chest=Destination |

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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:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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