--- title: ‘The dwellers in the Tontlawald cannot be worse than my stepmother’;… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘The dwellers in the Tontlawald cannot be worse than my stepmother’; and looking up she saw a little black dog with a silver bell on its neck come barking towards her, followed by a maiden clad all in silk. Who acts: dwellers, lightning. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale o --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/25/) [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/) / 25 # The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 25 ‘The dwellers in the Tontlawald cannot be worse than my stepmother’; and looking up she saw a little black dog with a silver bell on its neck come barking towards her, followed by a maiden clad all in silk. **Who acts:** dwellers, lightning · **What happens:** not be, look up, see, come, bark, follow · **To what, where:** little black dog, neck, silk 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 (dwellers, lightning), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:2:25 # text = ‘The dwellers in the Tontlawald cannot be worse than my stepmother’; and looking up she saw a little black dog with a silver bell on its neck come barking towards her, followed by a maiden clad all in silk. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 dwellers dweller NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 nsubj _ _ 4 in in ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 Tontlawald Tontlawald PROPN NNP Number=Sing 3 nmod _ _ 7 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 10 aux _ SpaceAfter=No 8 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 10 advmod _ _ 9 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 10 cop _ _ 10 worse bad ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 0 root _ _ 11 than than ADP IN _ 13 case _ _ 12 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 13 nmod:poss _ _ 13 stepmother stepmother NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 14 ’ ' PUNCT '' _ 13 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 15 ; ; PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 17 looking look VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 20 advcl _ _ 18 up up ADP RP _ 17 compound:prt _ _ 19 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 10 conj _ _ 21 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 22 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 23 black black ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 amod _ _ 24 dog dog NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obj _ _ 25 with with ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 26 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 27 silver silver NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 compound _ _ 28 bell bell NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nmod _ _ 29 on on ADP IN _ 31 case _ _ 30 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 31 nmod:poss _ _ 31 neck neck NOUN NN Number=Sing 32 obl _ _ 32 come come VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 20 parataxis _ _ 33 barking bark VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 32 xcomp _ _ 34 towards towards ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 35 her she PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 37 followed follow VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 32 parataxis _ _ 38 by by ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 39 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 40 maiden maiden NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obl _ _ 41 clad clad VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 37 advcl _ _ 42 all all ADV RB _ 44 advmod _ _ 43 in in ADP IN _ 44 case _ _ 44 silk silk NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **is** | can | the dwellers in the Tontlawald | | | | | than my stepmother; bad *property* | tree rules | | 2 | **look up** | gerund | lightning *not said here* | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 3 | **see** | past | lightning | a little black dog | | | | with a silver bell | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dog=Stimulus | | 4 | **come** | present | | | | bell's neck | | | tree rules | | 5 | **bark** | gerund | | | | | | towards lightning | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent towards she=Recipient | | 6 | **follow** | participle | | | | | | | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **clad** | past | | silk | | | | by a maiden | tree rules | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/24/) - next →: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/26/) - ↑ back to [A Tale of the Tontlawald](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/)