---
title: She searched under each chestnut tree, turning every blade of grass… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She searched under each chestnut tree, turning every blade of grass with her bill--nothing to be seen, and evening was drawing on! Who acts: life. 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 92

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She searched under each chestnut tree, turning every blade of grass with her bill--nothing to be seen, and evening was drawing on!

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**Who acts:** life · **What happens:** search, turn, see, draw on, bill · **To what, where:** chestnut tree, blade

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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 (life), 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:pg641:28:92
# text = She searched under each chestnut tree, turning every blade of grass with her bill--nothing to be seen, and evening was drawing on!
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	searched	search	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	under	under	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
5	chestnut	chestnut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	10	det	_	_
10	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	bill	bill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	15	appos	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	drawing	draw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **search** | past | life |  |  | each chestnut tree |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under tree=Location |
| 2 | **turn** | gerund | life *not said here* | every blade of grass |  |  |  | with life's bill | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent blade=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive · passive | life *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V» |
| 4 | **draw on** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **bill** |  | life |  |  |  |  |  | nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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