---
title: They brought in oak tables, which they spread with silken covers, an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They brought in oak tables, which they spread with silken covers, and placed all sorts of delicious dishes and refreshing drinks on them. Who acts: lads. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Two in a Sack, sentence 14

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They brought in oak tables, which they spread with silken covers, and placed all sorts of delicious dishes and refreshing drinks on them.

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**Who acts:** lads · **What happens:** bring, spread, place, refresh, sort · **To what, where:** oak tables, sorts, drinks, delicious dishes

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lads), 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:pg641:17:14
# text = They brought in oak tables, which they spread with silken covers, and placed all sorts of delicious dishes and refreshing drinks on them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	oak	oak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	tables	table	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	spread	spread	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	silken	silken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	covers	cover	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	refreshing	refresh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
23	drinks	drink	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | lads *= lad* |  |  | oak tables |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **spread** | present | lads *= lad* | oak tables |  |  |  | with silken covers | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent which=Destination with cover=Theme |
| 3 | **place** | past | lads *= lad* *not said here* | all sorts of delicious dishes |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent sort=Theme |
| 4 | **refresh** | gerund | lads *= lad* *not said here* | drinks |  |  |  | on lads *= lad* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus drink=Experiencer |
| 5 | **sort** |  |  | delicious dishes |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

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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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