---
title: Then they leaned it up against the wall, for it was too big to go in… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they leaned it up against the wall, for it was too big to go into a cupboard, and the beardless one said to the boy: Who acts: hands, cake, beardless one. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they leaned it up against the wall, for it was too big to go into a cupboard, and the beardless one said to the boy:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hands, cake, beardless one · **What happens:** learn up, be, go, say · **To what, where:** cake, cupboard, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hands, cake, beardless one), 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:pg641:3:16
# text = Then they leaned it up against the wall, for it was too big to go into a cupboard, and the beardless one said to the boy:
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	leaned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
6	against	against	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cupboard	cupboard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	beardless	beardless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **learn up** | past | hands *= hand* | cake |  |  | then | against the wall | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | past | cake |  |  |  |  | big *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | to-infinitive | cake *not said here* |  |  | a cupboard |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into cupboard=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the beardless one |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to boy=Recipient |

<!-- .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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