---
title: He was sitting at home one morning poring over the medicine book, wh… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was sitting at home one morning poring over the medicine book, when some neighbours came by and said to his mother: ‘Give us this boy, that we may go together to cut wood.’ Who acts: Hassebu, neighbours, we. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu, with its depe
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Hassebu, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was sitting at home one morning poring over the medicine book, when some neighbours came by and said to his mother: ‘Give us this boy, that we may go together to cut wood.’

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**Who acts:** Hassebu, neighbours, we · **What happens:** sit, pore, come by, say, give, go together · **To what, where:** home, medicine book, boy, us, wood · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hassebu, neighbours, we), 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:pg641:30:12
# text = He was sitting at home one morning poring over the medicine book, when some neighbours came by and said to his mother: ‘Give us this boy, that we may go together to cut wood.’
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	poring	pore	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	17	mark	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
25	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	Give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	ccomp	_	_
27	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	29	det	_	_
29	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
35	together	together	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
38	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | Hassebu |  |  | home | morning |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at home=Location |
| 2 | **pore** | gerund | Hassebu *not said here* |  |  | the medicine book |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come by** | past | some neighbours |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | some neighbours *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to Hassebu's mother | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to mother=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 5 | **give** | infinitive |  | this boy | us |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient boy=Theme |
| 6 | **go together** | may | we |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **cut** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | wood |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wood=Product |

<!-- .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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