---
title: He stood there thinking, till at last his father asked him: — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He stood there thinking, till at last his father asked him: Who acts: father, last father. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 30

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He stood there thinking, till at last his father asked him:

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**Who acts:** father, last father · **What happens:** stand, think, ask · **To what, where:** rage

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, last father), 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:pg641:27:30
# text = He stood there thinking, till at last his father asked him:
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
4	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | father |  |  | there |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | father's last father |  | rage |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

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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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