---
title: At first the work she had to do seemed very difficult, but either sh… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the work she had to do seemed very difficult, but either she was wonderfully quick in learning, or else the basket may have secretly helped her. Who acts: work, basket. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Child Who Came From an Egg, sentence 99

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At first the work she had to do seemed very difficult, but either she was wonderfully quick in learning, or else the basket may have secretly helped her.

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**Who acts:** work, basket · **What happens:** have, do, seem, be, help · **To what, where:** work, learning

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (work, basket), 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:pg641:12:99
# text = At first the work she had to do seemed very difficult, but either she was wonderfully quick in learning, or else the basket may have secretly helped her.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	9	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	either	either	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	advmod	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	wonderfully	wonderfully	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	learning	learning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	else	else	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	basket	basket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
28	secretly	secretly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
30	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | work | the work *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | the work *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the work |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | work |  |  | learning |  | either, quick, wonderfully *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | may | the basket |  |  |  |  | else *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **help** | past | the basket *not said here* |  | work |  |  | secretly *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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