--- title: But the children, who had had nothing to eat since their father had… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But the children, who had had nothing to eat since their father had left them, came rushing towards him, waving knives in their right hands and forks in their left, and crying, ‘Give us dragon’s flesh; we will have dragon’s flesh.’ Who acts: children, father, we. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/199/) [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/) / 199 # The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 199 But the children, who had had nothing to eat since their father had left them, came rushing towards him, waving knives in their right hands and forks in their left, and crying, ‘Give us dragon’s flesh; we will have dragon’s flesh.’ **Who acts:** children, father, we · **What happens:** have, eat, leave, come, rush, wave · **To what, where:** nothing, children, knives, flesh, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (children, father, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:13:199 # text = But the children, who had had nothing to eat since their father had left them, came rushing towards him, waving knives in their right hands and forks in their left, and crying, ‘Give us dragon’s flesh; we will have dragon’s flesh.’ 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 children child NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 7 punct _ _ 5 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 7 nsubj _ _ 6 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 aux _ _ 7 had have VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 3 acl:relcl _ _ 8 nothing nothing PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Neg 7 obj _ _ 9 to to PART TO _ 10 mark _ _ 10 eat eat VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 acl _ _ 11 since since SCONJ IN _ 15 mark _ _ 12 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 13 nmod:poss _ _ 13 father father NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nsubj _ _ 14 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 15 left leave VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 10 advcl _ _ 16 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 15 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 3 punct _ _ 18 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 19 rushing rush VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 18 xcomp _ _ 20 towards towards ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 19 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 22 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 23 waving wave VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 19 conj _ _ 24 knives knife NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obj _ _ 25 in in ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 26 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 28 nmod:poss _ _ 27 right right ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 28 amod _ _ 28 hands hand NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 obl _ _ 29 and and CCONJ CC _ 30 cc _ _ 30 forks fork NOUN NNS Number=Plur 28 conj _ _ 31 in in ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 33 nmod:poss _ _ 33 left left NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 crying cry VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 18 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 37 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 38 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 39 Give give VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 36 ccomp _ _ 40 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 39 iobj _ _ 41 dragon dragon NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 42 ’s 's PART POS _ 41 case _ _ 43 flesh flesh NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ; ; PUNCT : _ 47 punct _ _ 45 we we PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 47 nsubj _ _ 46 will will AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 47 aux _ _ 47 have have VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 18 conj _ _ 48 dragon dragon NOUN NN Number=Sing 50 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 49 ’s 's PART POS _ 48 case _ _ 50 flesh flesh NOUN NN Number=Sing 47 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 51 . . PUNCT . _ 47 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 52 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 47 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | past · perfect | the children | nothing | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient | | 2 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the children *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | | | | | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **leave** | past · perfect | children's father | children *= child* | | | | | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | | 4 | **come** | past | the children | | | | | | tree rules | | 5 | **rush** | gerund | the children *not said here* | | | | | towards Father | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme towards he=Destination | | 6 | **wave** | gerund | the children *not said here* | knives | | | | in children's left; in children's right hands and forks | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent knife=Patient in hand=Theme | | 7 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the children *not said here* | | | | | | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 8 | **give** | infinitive | | dragon's flesh | us | | | | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient flesh=Theme | | 9 | **have** | future | we | dragon's flesh | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=Patient | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 198](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/198/) - next →: [sentence 200](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/200/) - ↑ back to [Stan Bolovan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/13/)