---
title: The children flung themselves down on the ground, and, after eating… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The children flung themselves down on the ground, and, after eating as many as they wanted, began to pile up their baskets, when suddenly a cry arose from one of the older boys: Who acts: children, cry. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/19/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [A Tale of the Tontlawald](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/) / 19

# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The children flung themselves down on the ground, and, after eating as many as they wanted, began to pile up their baskets, when suddenly a cry arose from one of the older boys:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, cry · **What happens:** fling down, eat, want, begin, pile up, arise · **To what, where:** children, ground, many, baskets

<!-- .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 (children, cry), 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:pg641:2:19
# text = The children flung themselves down on the ground, and, after eating as many as they wanted, began to pile up their baskets, when suddenly a cry arose from one of the older boys:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	obj	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
20	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	pile	pile	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	baskets	basket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	31	advmod	_	_
28	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	arose	arise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	37	amod	_	_
37	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fling down** | past | the children | children *= child* |  | the ground |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme on ground=Destination |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund |  | many |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent many=Patient |
| 3 | **want** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **pile up** | to-infinitive |  | children's baskets |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent basket=Theme |
| 6 | **arise** | past | a cry |  |  |  |  | from one of the older boys; suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/20/)
- ↑ back to [A Tale of the Tontlawald](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/)