---
title: At a sign from the king, two servants carried in a large empty tub,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At a sign from the king, two servants carried in a large empty tub, which they set down in the open space before the throne, and Jesper was told to stand beside it. Who acts: two servants, servants, Jesper. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, with its d
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 138

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At a sign from the king, two servants carried in a large empty tub, which they set down in the open space before the throne, and Jesper was told to stand beside it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two servants, servants, Jesper · **What happens:** carry, set down, tell, stand · **To what, where:** sign, large empty tub, open space, Jesper, throne · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two servants, servants, Jesper), 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:pg641:24:138
# text = At a sign from the king, two servants carried in a large empty tub, which they set down in the open space before the throne, and Jesper was told to stand beside it.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
14	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tub	tub	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obj	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	space	space	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	before	before	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	throne	throne	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
30	Jesper	Jesper	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **carry** | past | two servants |  |  | a sign from the king |  | in a large empty tub | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in tub=Location |
| 2 | **set down** | past | servants *= servant* | a large empty tub |  | the open space | before the throne |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent which=Theme in space=Destination |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | Jesper |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **stand** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Jesper *not said here* |  |  | throne |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside it=Location |

<!-- .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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