---
title: As they did not reach as high as the table, they were often obliged… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As they did not reach as high as the table, they were often obliged to jump and hop right on to the top to get at the dishes. Who acts: dishes. 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 65

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As they did not reach as high as the table, they were often obliged to jump and hop right on to the top to get at the dishes.

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**Who acts:** dishes · **What happens:** not reach, oblige, jump, hop, get · **To what, where:** high, dishes, top

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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 (dishes), 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:pg641:25:65
# text = As they did not reach as high as the table, they were often obliged to jump and hop right on to the top to get at the dishes.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obj	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux:pass	_	_
14	often	often	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	jump	jump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	hop	hop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
20	right	right	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	on	on	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **reach** | past · do-support | dishes *= dish* | high |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent high=Theme |
| 2 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | dishes *= dish* |  |  |  | often *property* | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **jump** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hop** | infinitive |  |  |  | the top |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to top=Destination |
| 5 | **get** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | the dishes |  |  | 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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