---
title: In front of the fire three men were sitting clothed in white, just a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In front of the fire three men were sitting clothed in white, just as if it was summer, and for about thirty feet all round winter had been banished. Who acts: fire. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In front of the fire three men were sitting clothed in white, just as if it was summer, and for about thirty feet all round winter had been banished.

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**Who acts:** fire · **What happens:** clothe, be, banish · **To what, where:** three men, front, round winter

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fire), 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:pg641:25:15
# text = In front of the fire three men were sitting clothed in white, just as if it was summer, and for about thirty feet all round winter had been banished.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
9	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	clothed	clothe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	19	case	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	summer	summer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	about	about	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	_
26	all	all	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	banished	banish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clothe** | past · passive |  | three men |  | front of the fire |  | in white | vn dress-41.1.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | fire |  |  |  |  | as summer | tree rules |
| 3 | **banish** | past · perfect · passive |  | round winter |  |  |  | for thirty feet | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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