---
title: The morning was hot, and at last he put down his spade and wiped his… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The morning was hot, and at last he put down his spade and wiped his wet forehead, noticing, as he did so, that the animal was snuffling and scratching at a spot a little way off. Who acts: morning, man, animal. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its de
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The morning was hot, and at last he put down his spade and wiped his wet forehead, noticing, as he did so, that the animal was snuffling and scratching at a spot a little way off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** morning, man, animal · **What happens:** be, put down, wipe, notice, do, snuffle · **To what, where:** spade, last, wet forehead, little way

<!-- .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 (morning, man, animal), 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:pg641:18:4
# text = The morning was hot, and at last he put down his spade and wiped his wet forehead, noticing, as he did so, that the animal was snuffling and scratching at a spot a little way off.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	hot	hot	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	spade	spade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	wiped	wipe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	noticing	notice	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	snuffling	snuffle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	scratching	scratch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	conj	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
40	off	off	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the morning |  |  |  |  | hot *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **put down** | past | man | man's spade |  | last |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent spade=Theme at last=Destination |
| 3 | **wipe** | past | man *not said here* | man's wet forehead |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent forehead=Source |
| 4 | **notice** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **do** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **snuffle** | past · progressive | the animal | a little way |  |  |  | off *property* | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **scratch** | gerund | the animal *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at a spot | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at spot=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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