---
title: Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through the finest sieves, and the flour from them he made into soft bread for the toothless old woman. Who acts: scent, flour. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, with its dependency 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through the finest sieves, and the flour from them he made into soft bread for the toothless old woman.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** scent, flour · **What happens:** learn, catch, rub, make · **To what, where:** little sun moths, moths, finest sieves, soft bread

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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 (scent, flour), 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:pg641:26:80
# text = Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through the finest sieves, and the flour from them he made into soft bread for the toothless old woman.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	learnt	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
8	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	moths	moth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	rub	rub	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|Typo=Yes|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	sieves	sieve	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	flour	flour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
25	into	into	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
30	toothless	toothless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
31	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn** | past | scent |  |  |  | then |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **catch** | to-infinitive | scent *not said here* | the little sun moths |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moth=Theme |
| 3 | **rub** | present | scent *not said here* | moths *= moth* |  | the finest sieves |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme through sieve=Destination |
| 4 | **make** | past | the flour from sieves |  |  | soft bread |  | for the toothless old woman | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.product PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent into bread=Product for woman=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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