---
title: A countless number of women and children were gathered round a huge… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A countless number of women and children were gathered round a huge fire, and some were seated on the ground, while others danced strange dances on the smooth grass. Who acts: others. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/5/)

<!-- 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/) / 5

# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A countless number of women and children were gathered round a huge fire, and some were seated on the ground, while others danced strange dances on the smooth grass.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** others · **What happens:** gather, seat, dance · **To what, where:** countless number, some, ground, strange dances, smooth grass

<!-- .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 (others), 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:pg641:2:5
# text = A countless number of women and children were gathered round a huge fire, and some were seated on the ground, while others danced strange dances on the smooth grass.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	countless	countless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	gathered	gather	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	round	round	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	seated	seat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	parataxis	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
25	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	dances	dance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	smooth	smooth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gather** | past · passive |  | a countless number of women and children |  |  |  | round a huge fire | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **seat** | past · passive |  | some |  | the ground |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: subject=Value |
| 3 | **dance** | past | others | strange dances |  | the smooth grass |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location dance=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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/6/)
- ↑ back to [A Tale of the Tontlawald](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/2/)