---
title: The little blacksmiths were clad in leather aprons, which covered th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little blacksmiths were clad in leather aprons, which covered them from their necks to their feet in front, and left their backs naked. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 28

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The little blacksmiths were clad in leather aprons, which covered them from their necks to their feet in front, and left their backs naked.

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**What happens:** clad, cover, leave · **To what, where:** little blacksmiths, leather aprons, blacksmiths, necks, backs

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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: 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:pg641:25:28
# text = The little blacksmiths were clad in leather aprons, which covered them from their necks to their feet in front, and left their backs naked.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	blacksmiths	blacksmith	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	clad	clad	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	leather	leather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	aprons	apron	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clad** | past · passive |  | the little blacksmiths |  | leather aprons |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cover** | past |  | blacksmiths *= blacksmith* |  | blacksmiths's necks |  | to blacksmiths's feet; in front | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination in front=Theme |
| 3 | **leave** | past |  | blacksmiths's backs |  |  |  | naked *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent back=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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