---
title: So the donkey was bought, and the neighbours came, and they worked h… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the donkey was bought, and the neighbours came, and they worked hard all day, and in the evening they brought the wood back into the town, and sold it for a good sum of money. Who acts: neighbours, donkeys. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu, with its depen
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Hassebu, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the donkey was bought, and the neighbours came, and they worked hard all day, and in the evening they brought the wood back into the town, and sold it for a good sum of money.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** neighbours, donkeys · **What happens:** buy, come, work, bring back, sell, sum · **To what, where:** donkey, wood, town, money

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (neighbours, donkeys), 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:pg641:30:15
# text = So the donkey was bought, and the neighbours came, and they worked hard all day, and in the evening they brought the wood back into the town, and sold it for a good sum of money.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	bought	buy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	worked	work	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
15	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
16	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	sold	sell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	sum	sum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | past · passive |  | the donkey |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | the neighbours |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **work** | past | donkeys *= donkey* |  |  |  | day | hard *property* | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **bring back** | past | donkeys *= donkey* | the wood |  | the town | evening |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent wood=Theme into town=Destination |
| 5 | **sell** | past | the neighbours *not said here* | wood |  |  |  | for a good sum of money | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme for sum=Asset |
| 6 | **sum** |  |  | money |  |  |  |  | nom sum «possession transitive»: of=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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