---
title: When the old mother found that her son had arrived empty-handed she… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the old mother found that her son had arrived empty-handed she grew very angry, and fire and flame darted from her nostrils, but before she could speak the dragon turned to Stan. Who acts: old mother, son, mother, fire. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with it
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the old mother found that her son had arrived empty-handed she grew very angry, and fire and flame darted from her nostrils, but before she could speak the dragon turned to Stan.

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**Who acts:** old mother, son, mother, fire · **What happens:** find, arrive, hand, grow, dart, speak · **To what, where:** nostrils, dragon, Stan · **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 (old mother, son, mother, fire), 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:pg641:13:82
# text = When the old mother found that her son had arrived empty-handed she grew very angry, and fire and flame darted from her nostrils, but before she could speak the dragon turned to Stan.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	_
11	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	handed	hand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	darted	dart	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	nostrils	nostril	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
29	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
30	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
32	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	advcl	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
35	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | the old mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **arrive** | past · perfect | mother's son |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hand** | participle | mother's son *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **grow** | past | mother |  |  |  |  | angry *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **dart** | past | fire and flame |  |  | mother's nostrils |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from nostril=Trajectory |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | mother | the dragon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **turn** | past | mother *not said here* |  | Stan |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to stan=Result |

<!-- .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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