---
title: When he ceased to be a baby, and his mother thought it was time for… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he ceased to be a baby, and his mother thought it was time for him to learn to read, she sent him to school. Who acts: child, mother, baby. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hassebu, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Hassebu, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he ceased to be a baby, and his mother thought it was time for him to learn to read, she sent him to school.

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**Who acts:** child, mother, baby · **What happens:** cease, be, think, learn, read, send · **To what, where:** baby, time, child, school · **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 (child, mother, baby), 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:pg641:30:2
# text = When he ceased to be a baby, and his mother thought it was time for him to learn to read, she sent him to school.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ceased	cease	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	learn	learn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	read	read	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	school	school	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cease** | past | child |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is a** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* | a baby |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | child's mother |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | past | baby | time |  |  |  | for child | tree rules |
| 5 | **learn** | to-infinitive | child's mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **read** | to-infinitive | child's mother *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **send** | past | mother | child |  | school |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to school=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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