---
title: His legs were small and spindly, but his arms were as large as those… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His legs were small and spindly, but his arms were as large as those of a well-grown man, with large brown hands, and long skinny fingers. Who acts: legs, arms. 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 o
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His legs were small and spindly, but his arms were as large as those of a well-grown man, with large brown hands, and long skinny fingers.

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**Who acts:** legs, arms · **What happens:** be, grow

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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 (legs, arms), 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:pg641:27:58
# text = His legs were small and spindly, but his arms were as large as those of a well-grown man, with large brown hands, and long skinny fingers.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	spindly	spindly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	arms	arm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	as	as	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
18	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	amod	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	brown	brown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	skinny	skinny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | head's legs |  |  |  |  | long skinny fingers *obl*; small *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | head's legs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | head's arms |  |  |  |  | as those; with large brown hands; large *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **grow** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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