---
title: So the slaves beat the drums, and the young man danced till four o’c… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the slaves beat the drums, and the young man danced till four o’clock, and then it grew so cold he could dance no longer, and one of the slaves said to him: ‘It is getting light; the tree is safe; lie down, master, and go to sleep.’ Who acts: slaves, young man, thing, sultan. A sentence of «The V
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the slaves beat the drums, and the young man danced till four o’clock, and then it grew so cold he could dance no longer, and one of the slaves said to him: ‘It is getting light; the tree is safe; lie down, master, and go to sleep.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** slaves, young man, thing, sultan, one, tree · **What happens:** beat, dance, grow, say, get, be · **To what, where:** drums, sultan, light, sleep · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slaves, young man, thing, sultan), 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:pg641:29:12
# text = So the slaves beat the drums, and the young man danced till four o’clock, and then it grew so cold he could dance no longer, and one of the slaves said to him: ‘It is getting light; the tree is safe; lie down, master, and go to sleep.’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	drums	drum	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	danced	dance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	till	till	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	o’clock	o'clock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
26	no	no	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
30	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nsubj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nmod	_	_
34	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	41	punct	_	_
38	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	34	advcl	_	_
42	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	47	punct	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	nsubj	_	_
46	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
47	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	49	punct	_	_
49	lie	lie	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	47	parataxis	_	_
50	down	down	ADP	RP	_	49	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
52	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
55	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	49	conj	_	_
56	to	to	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	sleep	sleep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	47	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	47	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beat** | past | the slaves | the drums |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme |
| 2 | **dance** | past | the young man |  |  |  | till four o’clock |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **grow** | past | thing |  |  |  | then | cold *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **dance** | could | sultan |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | one of the slaves |  | sultan |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient |
| 6 | **get** | present · progressive | thing | light |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer light=Stimulus |
| 7 | **is** | present | the tree |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **lie down** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **go** | infinitive |  |  |  | sleep |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to sleep=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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