---
title: ‘How is it that you have bidden a man to watch the tree, when I, you… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘How is it that you have bidden a man to watch the tree, when I, your son, am left?’ Who acts: I, am. 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 84

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‘How is it that you have bidden a man to watch the tree, when I, your son, am left?’

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**Who acts:** I, am · **What happens:** be, watch, son, leave · **To what, where:** order, tree

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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, am), 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:pg641:29:84
# text = ‘How is it that you have bidden a man to watch the tree, when I, your son, am left?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	bidden	bid	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	am	a.m.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present · perfect · passive |  | order |  |  |  | bid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **watch** | to-infinitive |  | the tree and your son |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 3 | **son** |  | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **leave** | participle | am |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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