---
title: As he entered the head carver was in the act of cutting up the pie a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he entered the head carver was in the act of cutting up the pie and helping the duke and his guests. Who acts: Jem, head carver. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3, 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 3, sentence 63

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As he entered the head carver was in the act of cutting up the pie and helping the duke and his guests.

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**Who acts:** Jem, head carver · **What happens:** enter, be, cut up, help · **To what, where:** act, pie, duke

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jem, head carver), 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:pg641:28:63
# text = As he entered the head carver was in the act of cutting up the pie and helping the duke and his guests.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	carver	carver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
11	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	cutting	cut	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	pie	pie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	helping	help	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	duke	duke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | past | Jem |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the head carver |  |  | the act |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cut up** | gerund | the head carver *not said here* | the pie |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset pie=Product |
| 4 | **help** | gerund | the head carver *not said here* |  | the duke |  |  | Jem's guests *obl* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent duke=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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