---
title: First a long table covered with dishes ready laid for the number of… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: First a long table covered with dishes ready laid for the number of persons who would be seated round it, and this flew into the house all by itself. Who acts: this. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 112

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First a long table covered with dishes ready laid for the number of persons who would be seated round it, and this flew into the house all by itself.

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**Who acts:** this · **What happens:** cover, lay, seat, fly · **To what, where:** long table, persons, house

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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 (this), 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:pg641:2:112
# text = First a long table covered with dishes ready laid for the number of persons who would be seated round it, and this flew into the house all by itself.
1	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
8	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	_
9	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	xcomp	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	persons	person	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	seated	seat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	round	round	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
24	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	all	all	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cover** | participle |  | a long table *not said here* |  |  |  | with dishes; ready *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with dish=Theme |
| 2 | **lay** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for the number of persons | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for number=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **seat** | would · passive |  | persons |  |  |  | round number | vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: subject=Value |
| 4 | **fly** | past | this |  |  | the house |  | by house | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by itself=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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