---
title: But in Hans he had met his match, and the minister soon found to his… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in Hans he had met his match, and the minister soon found to his cost that in his case at any rate a full cup did not mean an empty plate. Who acts: minister, cost. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But in Hans he had met his match, and the minister soon found to his cost that in his case at any rate a full cup did not mean an empty plate.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** minister, cost · **What happens:** meet, find, not mean, cost · **To what, where:** match, Hans, empty plate

<!-- .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, cost), 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:pg641:33:14
# text = But in Hans he had met his match, and the minister soon found to his cost that in his case at any rate a full cup did not mean an empty plate.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	Hans	Hans	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	match	match	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
14	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	cost	cost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	rate	rate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	cup	cup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl:relcl	_	_
31	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	plate	plate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past · perfect | minister | minister's match |  | Hans |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent match=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **find** | past | the minister |  |  |  |  | to minister's cost; soon *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **mean** | past · do-support | minister's cost | a empty plate |  |  |  | in minister's case at any rate | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot plate=Theme in case=Attribute |
| 4 | **cost** |  | minister |  |  |  |  |  | nom cost «possession transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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