---
title: But when they had left the village behind them, and had ridden a few… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when they had left the village behind them, and had ridden a few miles, they found that snow had fallen during the night, and had been blown by the wind into drifts. Who acts: Hans, snow, wind. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when they had left the village behind them, and had ridden a few miles, they found that snow had fallen during the night, and had been blown by the wind into drifts.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hans, snow, wind · **What happens:** leave, ride, find, fall, blow · **To what, where:** village, few miles, drifts · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (Hans, snow, wind), 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:pg641:33:65
# text = But when they had left the village behind them, and had ridden a few miles, they found that snow had fallen during the night, and had been blown by the wind into drifts.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	ridden	ride	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	ccomp	_	_
24	during	during	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	blown	blow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	_
35	into	into	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	drifts	drift	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past · perfect | Hans *= han* | the village |  |  |  | behind breakfast | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent village=Theme behind they=Location |
| 2 | **ride** | past · perfect | Hans *= han* *not said here* | a few miles |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mile=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | Hans *= han* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **fall** | past · perfect | snow |  |  |  | night |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **blow** | past · perfect · passive | the wind |  |  | drifts |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP.material PP.product»: agent=Agent into drift=Product |

<!-- .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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