---
title: Before you could count three he had pulled up more trees than Stan c… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before you could count three he had pulled up more trees than Stan could have cut down in a lifetime, and had arranged them neatly in rows. Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 139

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Before you could count three he had pulled up more trees than Stan could have cut down in a lifetime, and had arranged them neatly in rows.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** count, pull up, cut down, arrange · **To what, where:** three, pulled more trees, lifetime, trees, rows

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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 (you), 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:pg641:13:139
# text = Before you could count three he had pulled up more trees than Stan could have cut down in a lifetime, and had arranged them neatly in rows.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	pulled	pull	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	amod	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
11	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux	_	_
16	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
17	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	arranged	arrange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	neatly	neatly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	rows	row	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | could | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **pull up** | past · perfect · passive |  | three |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **cut down** | could · perfect · passive |  | pulled more trees than Stan |  | a lifetime |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 4 | **arrange** | past · perfect |  | trees *= tree* |  | rows |  | neatly *property* | vn put-9.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme in row=Destination |

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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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