---
title: Stan was tired: he could scarcely lift the buckets when they were em… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Stan was tired: he could scarcely lift the buckets when they were empty, and he shuddered to think of what would happen when they were full. Who acts: Stan, buckets. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/126/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [Stan Bolovan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/) / 126

# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Stan was tired: he could scarcely lift the buckets when they were empty, and he shuddered to think of what would happen when they were full.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Stan, buckets · **What happens:** be, lift, shudder, think, happen · **To what, where:** buckets · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, buckets), 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:pg641:13:126
# text = Stan was tired: he could scarcely lift the buckets when they were empty, and he shuddered to think of what would happen when they were full.
1	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	lift	lift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	buckets	bucket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	shuddered	shudder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
25	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	28	mark	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Stan |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lift** | could | Stan | the buckets |  |  |  | scarcely *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bucket=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | buckets *= bucket* |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **shudder** | past | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | Stan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **is** | past | buckets *= bucket* |  |  |  |  | full *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/125/)
- next →: [sentence 127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/127/)
- ↑ back to [Stan Bolovan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/)