---
title: While he was sitting in the place where the wood-cutters had left hi… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was sitting in the place where the wood-cutters had left him, he took up a stone that lay near him, and idly dropped it on the ground. Who acts: Hassebu, stone. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Hassebu, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While he was sitting in the place where the wood-cutters had left him, he took up a stone that lay near him, and idly dropped it on the ground.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hassebu, stone · **What happens:** sit, leave, take up, lie, drop · **To what, where:** place, wood cutters, Hassebu, stone, ground

<!-- .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 (Hassebu, stone), 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:pg641:30:17
# text = While he was sitting in the place where the wood-cutters had left him, he took up a stone that lay near him, and idly dropped it on the ground.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	14	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	cutters	cutter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl:relcl	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
19	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	near	near	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	idly	idly	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | Hassebu |  |  | the place |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in place=Location |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect · passive |  | the wood cutters | Hassebu |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Theme he=Attribute |
| 3 | **take up** | past | Hassebu | a stone |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Theme |
| 4 | **lie** | past | a stone |  |  |  |  | near Hassebu | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near he=Location |
| 5 | **drop** | past | Hassebu *not said here* | stone |  | the ground |  | idly *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme on ground=Destination |

<!-- .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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