---
title: It was not many miles off, but the snow was so thick that there were… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not many miles off, but the snow was so thick that there were no roads, or walls, or hedges left to guide him, and very soon he lost his way altogether, and was glad to get shelter from the wind behind a thick juniper tree. Who acts: village, snow, roads, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/2/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/) / 2

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not many miles off, but the snow was so thick that there were no roads, or walls, or hedges left to guide him, and very soon he lost his way altogether, and was glad to get shelter from the wind behind a thick juniper tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** village, snow, roads, man · **What happens:** be, leave, guide, lose, get · **To what, where:** hedges, man, way, shelter, wind

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (village, snow, roads, man), 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:pg641:25:2
# text = It was not many miles off, but the snow was so thick that there were no roads, or walls, or hedges left to guide him, and very soon he lost his way altogether, and was glad to get shelter from the wind behind a thick juniper tree.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	off	off	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
16	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	hedges	hedge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
25	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	guide	guide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	very	very	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
40	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
41	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
42	to	to	PART	TO	_	43	mark	_	_
43	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	advcl	_	_
44	shelter	shelter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
45	from	from	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	_
48	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
50	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
51	juniper	juniper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	compound	_	_
52	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | village |  |  |  |  | many miles *obl:unmarked*; off *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the snow |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** | past | no roads or walls or hedges |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **leave** | participle |  | hedges *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **guide** | to-infinitive |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 6 | **lose** | past | man | man's way |  |  |  | altogether, soon *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality |
| 7 | **is** | past | the snow *not said here* |  |  |  |  | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **get** | to-infinitive | the snow *not said here* | shelter |  | the wind behind a thick juniper tree |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent shelter=Theme from wind=Source |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/1/)
- next →: [sentence 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/3/)
- ↑ back to [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/)