--- title: One day he was scratching as usual among a dust-heap in the street,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: One day he was scratching as usual among a dust-heap in the street, hoping to find something for breakfast, when his eye fell upon a small silver coin, called an eighth, which he greedily snatched up. Who acts: man, eye, small silver coin. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The St --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/2/) [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/) / [The Story of a Gazelle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/) / 2 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 2 One day he was scratching as usual among a dust-heap in the street, hoping to find something for breakfast, when his eye fell upon a small silver coin, called an eighth, which he greedily snatched up. **Who acts:** man, eye, small silver coin · **What happens:** scratch, hope, find, fall, call, snatch up · **To what, where:** dust heap, something, small silver coin, eighth · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (man, eye, small silver coin), 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:pg641:15:2 # text = One day he was scratching as usual among a dust-heap in the street, hoping to find something for breakfast, when his eye fell upon a small silver coin, called an eighth, which he greedily snatched up. 1 One one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 2 nummod _ _ 2 day day NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obl:unmarked _ _ 3 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 4 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 aux _ _ 5 scratching scratch VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ _ 6 as as ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 usual usual ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 obl _ _ 8 among among ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 9 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 10 dust dust NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 11 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 12 heap heap NOUN NN Number=Sing 5 obl _ _ 13 in in ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 15 street street NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 17 punct _ _ 17 hoping hope VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 5 conj _ _ 18 to to PART TO _ 19 mark _ _ 19 find find VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 17 xcomp _ _ 20 something something PRON NN Number=Sing|PronType=Ind 19 obj _ _ 21 for for ADP IN _ 22 case _ _ 22 breakfast breakfast NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 24 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 27 advmod _ _ 25 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 eye eye NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 nsubj _ _ 27 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 28 upon upon ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 30 small small ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 amod _ _ 31 silver silver NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 compound _ _ 32 coin coin NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 34 called call VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 32 acl _ _ 35 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 eighth eighth NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 37 , , PUNCT , _ 41 punct _ _ 38 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 41 obj _ _ 39 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 41 nsubj _ _ 40 greedily greedily ADV RB _ 41 advmod _ _ 41 snatched snatch VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 conj _ _ 42 up up ADP RP _ 41 compound:prt _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **scratch** | past · progressive | man | | | a dust heap in the street | day | as usual | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent among heap=Location | | 2 | **hope** | gerund | man *not said here* | | | | | | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | | 3 | **find** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | something | | | | for breakfast | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent something=Theme for breakfast=Beneficiary | | 4 | **fall** | past | man's eye | | | a small silver coin | | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon coin=Location | | 5 | **call** | participle | a small silver coin *not said here* | a eighth | | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent eighth=Recipient | | 6 | **snatch up** | past | man | a eighth | | | | greedily *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme | 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 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/1/) - next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/3/) - ↑ back to [The Story of a Gazelle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/15/)