---
title: They were silent, but the old woman peeped from behind a curtain, an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were silent, but the old woman peeped from behind a curtain, and saw the snake busy at the pots which she had placed ready for him in the courtyard. Who acts: father, old woman. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 143

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They were silent, but the old woman peeped from behind a curtain, and saw the snake busy at the pots which she had placed ready for him in the courtyard.

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**Who acts:** father, old woman · **What happens:** be, peep, see, place · **To what, where:** snake, courtyard

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, old woman), 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:pg641:15:143
# text = They were silent, but the old woman peeped from behind a curtain, and saw the snake busy at the pots which she had placed ready for him in the courtyard.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	silent	silent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	peeped	peep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	pots	pot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
27	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	xcomp	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | father |  |  |  |  | silent *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **peep** | participle | the old woman |  |  |  |  | from a curtain | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from curtain=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past |  | the snake |  |  |  | busy *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer snake=Stimulus |
| 4 | **place** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  | the courtyard |  | for Hark; ready *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in courtyard=Destination |

<!-- .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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