---
title: At length, one night when he was asleep, he dreamt that the dog appe… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length, one night when he was asleep, he dreamt that the dog appeared to him and told him to cut down the fig-tree over his grave, and out of its wood to make a mortar. Who acts: man, dog. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 28

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At length, one night when he was asleep, he dreamt that the dog appeared to him and told him to cut down the fig-tree over his grave, and out of its wood to make a mortar.

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**Who acts:** man, dog · **What happens:** be, dreamt, appear, tell, cut down, make · **To what, where:** length, man, fig tree, grave, mortar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (man, dog), 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:pg641:18:28
# text = At length, one night when he was asleep, he dreamt that the dog appeared to him and told him to cut down the fig-tree over his grave, and out of its wood to make a mortar.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	dreamt	dreamt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	iobj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
24	down	down	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
26	fig	fig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
29	over	over	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	grave	grave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	acl	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	mortar	mortar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **dreamt** | past | man |  |  | length |  | out tree's wood | tree rules |
| 3 | **appear** | past | the dog |  | man |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the dog *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **cut down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the dog *not said here* | the fig tree |  | man's grave |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset tree=Product |
| 6 | **make** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | a mortar |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset mortar=Product |

<!-- .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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