---
title: In the courtyard stood a huge granite block about twenty steps from… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the courtyard stood a huge granite block about twenty steps from the house, and when meal times came round the old man with the long beard went to the block, drew out a small silver staff, and struck the stone with it three times, so that the sound could be heard a long way off. Who acts: meal ti
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the courtyard stood a huge granite block about twenty steps from the house, and when meal times came round the old man with the long beard went to the block, drew out a small silver staff, and struck the stone with it three times, so that the sound could be heard a long way off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** meal times · **What happens:** stand, come, go, draw out, strike, hear · **To what, where:** huge granite block, courtyard, block, small silver staff, stone, sound

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meal times), 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:pg641:2:109
# text = In the courtyard stood a huge granite block about twenty steps from the house, and when meal times came round the old man with the long beard went to the block, drew out a small silver staff, and struck the stone with it three times, so that the sound could be heard a long way off.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	granite	granite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	block	block	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	about	about	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
18	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
21	round	round	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
29	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	block	block	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
34	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
35	out	out	ADP	RP	_	34	compound:prt	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
37	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
38	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	struck	strike	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	with	with	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obl	_	_
47	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	48	nummod	_	_
48	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	56	punct	_	_
50	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	56	mark	_	_
51	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	50	fixed	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	nsubj:pass	_	_
54	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	56	aux:pass	_	_
56	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	42	conj	_	_
57	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	59	det	_	_
58	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	59	amod	_	_
59	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	obl:unmarked	_	_
60	off	off	ADV	RB	_	56	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a huge granite block |  | the courtyard |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent block=Theme step=Destination |
| 2 | **come** | past | meal times |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | meal times *not said here* |  |  | the block |  | round the old man with the long beard | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme round man=Initial\_Location to block=Destination |
| 4 | **draw out** | past | meal times *not said here* | a small silver staff |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **strike** | past |  | the stone |  |  | time | with block | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent stone=Patient with it=Instrument |
| 6 | **hear** | could · passive |  | the sound |  |  |  | off *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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