--- title: In a few minutes the ants had the field all to themselves; and their… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: In a few minutes the ants had the field all to themselves; and their king made quite an eloquent speech to Jesper, thanking him for the service he had done them, and promising to assist him in any difficulty. Who acts: ants, king, Jesper. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/55/) [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/) / [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/) / 55 # The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 55 In a few minutes the ants had the field all to themselves; and their king made quite an eloquent speech to Jesper, thanking him for the service he had done them, and promising to assist him in any difficulty. **Who acts:** ants, king, Jesper · **What happens:** have, make, thank, do, promise, assist · **To what, where:** field, Ants, eloquent speech, Jesper, difficulty 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 (ants, king, Jesper), 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:pg641:24:55 # text = In a few minutes the ants had the field all to themselves; and their king made quite an eloquent speech to Jesper, thanking him for the service he had done them, and promising to assist him in any difficulty. 1 In in ADP IN _ 4 case _ _ 2 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 3 few few ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 4 amod _ _ 4 minutes minute NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 obl _ _ 5 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 6 det _ _ 6 ants ant NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 nsubj _ _ 7 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 8 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 9 field field NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 obj _ _ 10 all all ADV RB _ 12 advmod _ _ 11 to to ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 12 themselves themselves PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 7 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ; ; PUNCT : _ 16 punct _ _ 14 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 15 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 obl _ _ 17 made make VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 16 acl _ _ 18 quite quite ADV RB _ 21 advmod _ _ 19 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 20 eloquent eloquent ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 speech speech NOUN NN Number=Sing 17 obj _ _ 22 to to ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 23 Jesper Jesper PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 25 punct _ _ 25 thanking thank VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 21 appos _ _ 26 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 obj _ _ 27 for for ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 service service NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 obl _ _ 30 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj _ _ 31 had have AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 aux _ _ 32 done do VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 29 acl:relcl _ _ 33 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 36 promising promise VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 25 conj _ _ 37 to to PART TO _ 38 mark _ _ 38 assist assist VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 36 xcomp _ _ 39 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 38 obj _ _ 40 in in ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 42 det _ _ 42 difficulty difficulty NOUN NN Number=Sing 38 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **have** | past | the ants | the field | Ants *= ant* | | minute | Ants's king *obl* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent field=Patient | | 2 | **make** | participle | Ants's king *not said here* | a eloquent speech | | | | to Jesper | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset speech=Product | | 3 | **thank** *speech: thank* | gerund | | | Jesper | | | for the service | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent he=Theme for service=Attribute | | 4 | **do** | past · perfect | Jesper | Ants *= ant* | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality | | 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | gerund | | | | | | | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 6 | **assist** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | | | Jesper | any difficulty | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary | 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 54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/54/) - next →: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/56/) - ↑ back to [Jesper Who Herded the Hares](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/24/)