---
title: ‘First you mess all our nice herbs about with your horrid brown fing… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘First you mess all our nice herbs about with your horrid brown fingers and sniff at them with your long nose till no one else will care to buy them, and then you say it’s all bad stuff, though the duke’s cook himself buys all his herbs from us.’ Who acts: you, one, stuff, nose. A sentence of «The V
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘First you mess all our nice herbs about with your horrid brown fingers and sniff at them with your long nose till no one else will care to buy them, and then you say it’s all bad stuff, though the duke’s cook himself buys all his herbs from us.’

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**Who acts:** you, one, stuff, nose · **What happens:** mess, sniff, care, buy, say, be · **To what, where:** nice herbs, herbs, cook, bad stuff · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, one, stuff, nose), 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:pg641:26:30
# text = ‘First you mess all our nice herbs about with your horrid brown fingers and sniff at them with your long nose till no one else will care to buy them, and then you say it’s all bad stuff, though the duke’s cook himself buys all his herbs from us.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	First	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	mess	mess	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	herbs	herb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	about	about	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
10	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
12	horrid	horrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	sniff	sniff	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	nose	nose	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	else	else	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	care	care	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	_
35	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	cop	_	_
39	all	all	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
40	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	stuff	stuff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
43	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	duke	duke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	’s	's	PART	POS	_	45	case	_	_
47	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
48	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	49	nsubj	_	_
49	buys	buy	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	acl:relcl	_	_
50	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	52	det:predet	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	herbs	herb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obj	_	_
53	from	from	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	52	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mess** | present | you | our nice herbs |  |  |  | with your horrid brown fingers; first *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sniff** | present | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at fingers *= finger*; with your long nose | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme |
| 3 | **care** | future | no one |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **buy** | to-infinitive | no one *not said here* | herbs *= herb* |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | you | the duke's cook |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | present | stuff | bad stuff |  |  |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **buy** | present | nose | nose's herbs |  |  |  | from us | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent herb=Theme from we=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.

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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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