---
title: How long he slept, I cannot tell you, but after awhile he became awa… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: How long he slept, I cannot tell you, but after awhile he became aware that some one was gently shaking him, while a stranger whispered, ‘My good man, get up! Who acts: man, I, one, stranger. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How long he slept, I cannot tell you, but after awhile he became aware that some one was gently shaking him, while a stranger whispered, ‘My good man, get up!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, I, one, stranger · **What happens:** sleep, not tell, become, shake, whisper, get up · **To what, where:** you, man, good man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (man, I, one, stranger), 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:pg641:25:5
# text = How long he slept, I cannot tell you, but after awhile he became aware that some one was gently shaking him, while a stranger whispered, ‘My good man, get up!
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	awhile	awhile	ADV	RB	_	16	obl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	aware	aware	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	shaking	shake	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
36	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	_
37	up	up	ADP	RP	_	36	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | past | man |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **become** | past | man |  |  |  |  | aware *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **shake** | past · progressive | some one | man |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 5 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | a stranger | My good man |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **get up** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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