---
title: The white horse, who is our master’s grandmother, is always hungry:… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The white horse, who is our master’s grandmother, is always hungry: it takes twenty men always mowing to keep it in food for one day, and another twenty to clean out its stall. Who acts: white horse, it, twenty. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2, with 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 2, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The white horse, who is our master’s grandmother, is always hungry: it takes twenty men always mowing to keep it in food for one day, and another twenty to clean out its stall.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** white horse, it, twenty · **What happens:** be, take, mow, keep, clean out · **To what, where:** grandmother, twenty men, master, food, stall

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (white horse, it, twenty), 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:pg641:10:5
# text = The white horse, who is our master’s grandmother, is always hungry: it takes twenty men always mowing to keep it in food for one day, and another twenty to clean out its stall.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
6	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	grandmother	grandmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	_
14	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	takes	take	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
18	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	mowing	mow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	det	_	_
33	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	35	nsubj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	clean	clean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
36	out	out	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	stall	stall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the white horse | our master's grandmother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the white horse |  |  |  |  | always, hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | present | it |  | twenty men |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument man=Destination |
| 4 | **mow** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | master |  | food | day |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in food=Location |
| 6 | **clean out** | to-infinitive | another twenty | food's stall |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent stall=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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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