---
title: A short time before he had dug a long passage through the ground fro… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A short time before he had dug a long passage through the ground from his own house to that of his neighbour; in this he gave the field-mouse and Thumbelina permission to walk as often as they liked. Who acts: neighbour, songs. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the S
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 151

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A short time before he had dug a long passage through the ground from his own house to that of his neighbour; in this he gave the field-mouse and Thumbelina permission to walk as often as they liked.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** neighbour, songs · **What happens:** dig, give, walk, like · **To what, where:** long passage, field mouse, this

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (neighbour, songs), 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:pg640:47:151
# text = A short time before he had dug a long passage through the ground from his own house to that of his neighbour; in this he gave the field-mouse and Thumbelina permission to walk as often as they liked.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	dug	dig	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	through	through	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	obl	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	Thumbelina	Thumbelina	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
37	as	as	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	often	often	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
39	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
40	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
41	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig** | past · perfect | neighbour | a long passage |  |  | time | from neighbour's own house to that; through the ground | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent passage=Instrument through ground=Patient |
| 2 | **give** | past | neighbour | the field mouse and Thumbelina permission |  | this |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme |
| 3 | **walk** | to-infinitive | neighbour *not said here* |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **like** | past | songs *= song* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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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