---
title: They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the heart… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the hearth, and began to rake about among the ashes just as he had done before, when he lay there idling away his time. Who acts: vessels, Halvor. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 88

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They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the hearth, and began to rake about among the ashes just as he had done before, when he lay there idling away his time.

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**Who acts:** vessels, Halvor · **What happens:** say, sit down, begin, rake, do, lie · **To what, where:** nothing, hearth, ashes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (vessels, Halvor), 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:pg540:6:88
# text = They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the hearth, and began to rake about among the ashes just as he had done before, when he lay there idling away his time.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	3	obj	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	Halvor	Halvor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hearth	hearth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	rake	rake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	about	about	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	among	among	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
25	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
29	before	before	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
34	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	33	advmod	_	_
35	idling	idle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
36	away	away	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | could | vessels *= vessel* | nothing |  |  |  | against that | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | Halvor |  |  | the hearth |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on hearth=Location |
| 3 | **begin** | past | Halvor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **rake** | to-infinitive | Halvor *not said here* |  |  | the ashes |  | about *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among ash=Location |
| 5 | **do** | past · perfect | Halvor |  |  |  |  | before *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **lie** | past | Halvor |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **idle away** | gerund | Halvor *not said here* |  |  |  | time | away *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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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