---
title: He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants ca… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants came pouring into the barn, who under the king’s orders set to work to separate the grain into the proper heaps. Who acts: personage, stream, barn, king. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hare
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants came pouring into the barn, who under the king’s orders set to work to separate the grain into the proper heaps.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** personage, stream, barn, king · **What happens:** give, come, pour, set, work, separate · **To what, where:** royal signal, barn, grain, proper heaps

<!-- .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 (personage, stream, barn, king), 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:pg641:24:89
# text = He gave the royal signal, and in a minute or two a stream of ants came pouring into the barn, who under the king’s orders set to work to separate the grain into the proper heaps.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	signal	signal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	minute	minute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	conj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	pouring	pour	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	advcl	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	barn	barn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
24	under	under	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’s	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	set	set	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	separate	separate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	advcl	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	into	into	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	proper	proper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	heaps	heap	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | personage | the royal signal |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent signal=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | a stream of ants |  |  |  | minute |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **pour** | gerund | a stream of ants *not said here* |  |  | the barn |  |  | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into barn=Location |
| 4 | **set** | present | the barn |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **work** | to-infinitive | the barn *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **separate** | to-infinitive | the barn *not said here* | the grain |  |  |  | into the proper heaps *goal* | vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent grain=Theme into heap=Goal |
| 7 | **order** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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