---
title: ‘Because the herb only grows near the roots of chestnut trees,’ repl… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Because the herb only grows near the roots of chestnut trees,’ replied Mimi; ‘so let us lose no time in finding it. Who acts: herb, us. 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 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Because the herb only grows near the roots of chestnut trees,’ replied Mimi; ‘so let us lose no time in finding it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** herb, us · **What happens:** grow, reply, let, lose, find · **To what, where:** roots, Mimi, us, herb

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (herb, us), 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:pg641:28:88
# text = ‘Because the herb only grows near the roots of chestnut trees,’ replied Mimi; ‘so let us lose no time in finding it.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	herb	herb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	grows	grow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
7	near	near	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	chestnut	chestnut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
15	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	Mimi	Mimi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
21	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	24	det	_	_
24	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	finding	find	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | present | the herb |  |  | the roots of chestnut trees |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme near root=Location |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | Mimi |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent mimi=Topic |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive |  | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **lose** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **find** | gerund | us *not said here* | herb |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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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