---
title: As he lay there on his back, he seemed so big that in spite of Petru… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he lay there on his back, he seemed so big that in spite of Petru’s haste he stopped to measure him. Who acts: Petru. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3, sentence 89

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As he lay there on his back, he seemed so big that in spite of Petru’s haste he stopped to measure him.

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**Who acts:** Petru · **What happens:** lie, seem, stop, measure, spite · **To what, where:** back, spite, Petru, haste

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Petru), 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:pg641:21:89
# text = As he lay there on his back, he seemed so big that in spite of Petru’s haste he stopped to measure him.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	Petru	Petru	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’s	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	measure	measure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | Petru |  |  | Petru's back; there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on back=Location |
| 2 | **seem** | past | Petru |  |  |  |  | big *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **stop** | past | Petru |  |  | spite of Petru's haste |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **measure** | to-infinitive | Petru *not said here* | Petru |  |  |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme he=Value |
| 5 | **spite** |  |  | Petru's haste |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling 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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