---
title: On the table he saw a slice of bread lying, and, being hungry, he at… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On the table he saw a slice of bread lying, and, being hungry, he ate it before going to sleep. Who acts: husband, slice. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 165

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On the table he saw a slice of bread lying, and, being hungry, he ate it before going to sleep.

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**Who acts:** husband, slice · **What happens:** see, lie, be, eat, go, sleep · **To what, where:** slice, table, bread

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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 (husband, slice), 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:pg641:2:165
# text = On the table he saw a slice of bread lying, and, being hungry, he ate it before going to sleep.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	slice	slice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	cop	_	_
15	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | husband | a slice of bread |  | the table |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer slice=Stimulus |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | a slice of bread *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | gerund | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hungry *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **eat** | past | husband | slice |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **go** | gerund | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | husband *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **slice** |  |  | bread |  |  |  |  | nom slice «possession transitive»: of=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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