---
title: He said that he had watched by the trees all night, but in spite of… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He said that he had watched by the trees all night, but in spite of it, and as if by magic, the beautiful trees had been robbed of all their fruit. Who acts: gardener. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 1, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said that he had watched by the trees all night, but in spite of it, and as if by magic, the beautiful trees had been robbed of all their fruit.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gardener · **What happens:** say, watch, rob, spite · **To what, where:** beautiful trees, spite, fruit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), 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 (gardener), 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:pg640:30:18
# text = He said that he had watched by the trees all night, but in spite of it, and as if by magic, the beautiful trees had been robbed of all their fruit.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	watched	watch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
7	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	det	_	_
11	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	23	case	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	fixed	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	robbed	rob	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	34	det:predet	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | gardener |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **watch** | past · perfect | gardener |  |  |  | night | by the trees | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by tree=Location |
| 3 | **rob** | past · perfect · passive |  | the beautiful trees |  | spite of fruit and magic |  | of trees's fruit | vn rob-10.6.4 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme of fruit=Source |
| 4 | **spite** |  |  | fruit |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling 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.

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**Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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