---
title: ‘Your father set you to watch the tree, and you have not watched, an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Your father set you to watch the tree, and you have not watched, and the dates have all been eaten by a bird.’ Who acts: father, you, bird. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Your father set you to watch the tree, and you have not watched, and the dates have all been eaten by a bird.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, you, bird · **What happens:** set, watch, not watch, eat · **To what, where:** you, tree, dates

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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 (father, you, bird), 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:pg641:29:18
# text = ‘Your father set you to watch the tree, and you have not watched, and the dates have all been eaten by a bird.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	watched	watch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
22	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	conj	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | past | Your father | you |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient you=Result |
| 2 | **watch** | to-infinitive | Your father *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **watch** | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **eat** | present · perfect · passive | a bird | the dates |  |  |  | all *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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