---
title: Stan spoke so calmly that this time the dragon began to get a little… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Stan spoke so calmly that this time the dragon began to get a little frightened, though he did not quite believe that things would be as bad as Stan said. Who acts: Stan, time, little, things. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 101

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Stan spoke so calmly that this time the dragon began to get a little frightened, though he did not quite believe that things would be as bad as Stan said.

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**Who acts:** Stan, time, little, things · **What happens:** speak, begin, get, frighten, not believe, be · **To what, where:** little · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Stan, time, little, things), 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:pg641:13:101
# text = Stan spoke so calmly that this time the dragon began to get a little frightened, though he did not quite believe that things would be as bad as Stan said.
1	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	calmly	calmly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obj	_	_
15	frightened	frighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	cop	_	_
27	as	as	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | Stan |  |  |  |  | calmly *property* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **begin** | past | this time |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive | this time *not said here* | a little |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **frighten** | participle | a little *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is** | would | things |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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