---
title: He used to sit by his mother in the market and would carry home what… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He used to sit by his mother in the market and would carry home what people bought from her, for which they often gave him a pretty flower, or a slice of cake, or even some small coin. Who acts: boy, people. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/26/9/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/26/) / 9

# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He used to sit by his mother in the market and would carry home what people bought from her, for which they often gave him a pretty flower, or a slice of cake, or even some small coin.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, people · **What happens:** use, sit, carry, buy, give, slice · **To what, where:** market, pretty flower, boy, cake

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (boy, people), 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:pg641:26:9
# text = He used to sit by his mother in the market and would carry home what people bought from her, for which they often gave him a pretty flower, or a slice of cake, or even some small coin.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	market	market	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
14	home	home	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obl	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	often	often	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	pretty	pretty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	slice	slice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
37	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
38	even	even	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
39	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	41	det	_	_
40	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	coin	coin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **sit** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  | the market |  | by boy's mother | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by mother=Location |
| 3 | **carry** | would | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 4 | **buy** | past | people |  |  |  |  | from Jem | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from she=Source |
| 5 | **give** | past | people | a pretty flower | boy |  |  | a slice of cake or some small coin *obl*; often *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent he=Recipient flower=Theme for which=Asset |
| 6 | **slice** |  |  | cake |  |  |  |  | nom slice «possession transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/26/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/26/10/)
- ↑ back to [The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/26/)