---
title: The box was so heavy that the old woman had to help to carry it home… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The box was so heavy that the old woman had to help to carry it home, and you may guess what a supper the dog had that night! Who acts: box, old woman, you, supper. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The box was so heavy that the old woman had to help to carry it home, and you may guess what a supper the dog had that night!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** box, old woman, you, supper · **What happens:** be, have, help, carry, guess · **To what, where:** box · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (box, old woman, you, supper), 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:pg641:18:10
# text = The box was so heavy that the old woman had to help to carry it home, and you may guess what a supper the dog had that night!
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	home	home	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	guess	guess	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	obj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	supper	supper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
28	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	29	det	_	_
29	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the box |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **help** | to-infinitive | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **carry** | to-infinitive | the old woman *not said here* | box |  |  |  | home *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **guess** | may | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **have** | past | a supper |  |  |  | night |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Patient |

<!-- .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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