---
title: The minister did his best to keep the matter secret, but it leaked o… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The minister did his best to keep the matter secret, but it leaked out for all that, and the end of it was that no one would enter his service. Who acts: minister, secret, end. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The minister did his best to keep the matter secret, but it leaked out for all that, and the end of it was that no one would enter his service.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** minister, secret, end · **What happens:** do, keep, leak out, be, service · **To what, where:** best, matter secret

<!-- .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, secret, end), 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:pg641:33:5
# text = The minister did his best to keep the matter secret, but it leaked out for all that, and the end of it was that no one would enter his service.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	leaked	leak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	obl	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	28	det	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	service	service	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | the minister | minister's best |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive | the minister *not said here* | the matter secret |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent secret=Theme |
| 3 | **leak out** | past | secret |  |  |  |  | for all | vn substance\_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source |
| 4 | **is** | would · past | the end of secret |  |  |  |  | enter *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **service** |  | minister |  |  |  |  |  | nom service «act 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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