---
title: He was very seldom serious, but then he had a way when he was thinki… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was very seldom serious, but then he had a way when he was thinking of stroking his hair over his forehead, which made him look old enough to sit in his father’s council! Who acts: Petru, forehead. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, with its depen
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 13

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He was very seldom serious, but then he had a way when he was thinking of stroking his hair over his forehead, which made him look old enough to sit in his father’s council!

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**Who acts:** Petru, forehead · **What happens:** be, have, think, stroke, make, look · **To what, where:** way, hair, forehead, Petru, council

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Petru, forehead), 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:pg641:19:13
# text = He was very seldom serious, but then he had a way when he was thinking of stroking his hair over his forehead, which made him look old enough to sit in his father’s council!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	serious	serious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
17	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	stroking	stroke	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	xcomp	_	_
30	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	advcl	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’s	's	PART	POS	_	35	case	_	_
37	council	council	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Petru |  |  |  |  | seldom, serious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Petru | a way |  |  | then |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past · progressive | Petru |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stroke** | gerund | Petru *not said here* | Petru's hair |  | Petru's forehead |  |  | vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Experiencer |
| 5 | **make** | past | Petru's forehead | Petru |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **look** | infinitive | Petru *not said here* |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 7 | **sit** | to-infinitive | Petru *not said here* |  |  | Petru's father's council |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in council=Location |

<!-- .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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