---
title: When I woke a slave was standing over me, and he said, “There is not… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When I woke a slave was standing over me, and he said, “There is not one date left on the tree!” Who acts: I, slave, lad, one date. 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 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When I woke a slave was standing over me, and he said, “There is not one date left on the tree!”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, slave, lad, one date · **What happens:** wake, stand, say, be, leave · **To what, where:** one date, tree · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, slave, lad, one date), 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:pg641:29:31
# text = When I woke a slave was standing over me, and he said, “There is not one date left on the tree!”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	woke	wake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
8	over	over	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	17	expl	_	_
17	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
21	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wake** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **stand** | past · progressive | a slave |  |  |  |  | over me | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over i=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | lad |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **be** *in a quote* | present | one date |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** *in a quote* | participle |  | one date *not said here* |  | the tree |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent on tree=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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