---
title: Curious to know if the dog had really found anything, the husband be… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Curious to know if the dog had really found anything, the husband began to dig, and very soon the spade struck against something. Who acts: husband, spade. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 8

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Curious to know if the dog had really found anything, the husband began to dig, and very soon the spade struck against something.

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**Who acts:** husband, spade · **What happens:** know, find, begin, dig, strike · **To what, where:** dog, something

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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 (husband, spade), 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:pg641:18:8
# text = Curious to know if the dog had really found anything, the husband began to dig, and very soon the spade struck against something.
1	Curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
2	to	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	really	really	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	_
10	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	dig	dig	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	spade	spade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
24	against	against	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **find** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect · passive |  | the dog |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme anything=Attribute |
| 3 | **begin** | past | the husband |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **dig** | to-infinitive | the husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **strike** | past | the spade |  |  | something |  | soon *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against something=Location |

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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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