---
title: It was standing by itself in one corner, and in a moment he was besi… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was standing by itself in one corner, and in a moment he was beside it, tearing away the earth with his knife. Who acts: three, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Enchanted Knife, sentence 29

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It was standing by itself in one corner, and in a moment he was beside it, tearing away the earth with his knife.

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**Who acts:** three, man · **What happens:** stand, be, tear away · **To what, where:** one corner, three, earth

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Knife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three, man), 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:pg641:23:29
# text = It was standing by itself in one corner, and in a moment he was beside it, tearing away the earth with his knife.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past · progressive | three |  |  | one corner |  | by three | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by itself=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  | three |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tear away** | gerund | three | the earth |  |  | moment | with man's knife; away *property* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent earth=Patient with knife=Instrument |

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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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