---
title: There was once a minister who spent his whole time in trying to find… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a minister who spent his whole time in trying to find a servant who would undertake to ring the church bells at midnight, in addition to all his other duties. Who acts: minister, servant. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was once a minister who spent his whole time in trying to find a servant who would undertake to ring the church bells at midnight, in addition to all his other duties.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** minister, servant · **What happens:** be, spend, try, find, undertake, ring · **To what, where:** servant, church bells, addition

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (minister, servant), 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:pg641:33:1
# text = There was once a minister who spent his whole time in trying to find a servant who would undertake to ring the church bells at midnight, in addition to all his other duties.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	undertake	undertake	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	ring	ring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	addition	addition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
31	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	34	det:predet	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	duties	duty	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a minister |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **spend** | past | a minister |  |  |  | time |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | a minister *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **find** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | a minister *not said here* | a servant |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Topic |
| 5 | **undertake** | would | a servant |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **ring** | to-infinitive | a servant *not said here* | the church bells |  | addition to minister's other duties | midnight |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bell=Theme |

<!-- .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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