---
title: On a high stool against the wall sat the man with the pinewood staff… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On a high stool against the wall sat the man with the pinewood staff, watching sharply the way the little fellows did their work, and near him stood a large can, from which every now and then the workers would come and take a drink. Who acts: little fellows, workers, fellows. A sentence of «The Viol
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On a high stool against the wall sat the man with the pinewood staff, watching sharply the way the little fellows did their work, and near him stood a large can, from which every now and then the workers would come and take a drink.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little fellows, workers, fellows · **What happens:** sit, watch, do, stand, come, take · **To what, where:** man, high stool, way, work, drink

<!-- .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 (little fellows, workers, fellows), 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:pg641:25:29
# text = On a high stool against the wall sat the man with the pinewood staff, watching sharply the way the little fellows did their work, and near him stood a large can, from which every now and then the workers would come and take a drink.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	stool	stool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	pinewood	pinewood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
17	sharply	sharply	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	near	near	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
30	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	nsubj	_	_
33	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	obl	_	_
37	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	44	det	_	_
38	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	44	advmod	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	44	advmod	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	workers	worker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	nsubj	_	_
43	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
44	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	parataxis	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
46	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	conj	_	_
47	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past |  | the man |  | a high stool against the wall |  | with the pinewood staff | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent man=Theme on stool=Location |
| 2 | **watch** | gerund |  | the way |  |  |  | sharply *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **do** | past | the little fellows | fellows's work |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |
| 4 | **stand** | past |  |  |  |  |  | near man | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near he=Location |
| 5 | **come** | would | the workers |  |  |  | now; then |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from which=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **take** | infinitive | the workers *not said here* | a drink |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drink=Theme |
| 7 | **work** |  | fellows *= fellow* |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: 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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