---
title: The horses ploughed their way slowly through the deep soft snow and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The horses ploughed their way slowly through the deep soft snow and as they went Hans kept turning to look at the sun, which lay at their backs. Who acts: horses, Hans, sun. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The horses ploughed their way slowly through the deep soft snow and as they went Hans kept turning to look at the sun, which lay at their backs.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** horses, Hans, sun · **What happens:** plough, go, keep, turn, look, lay · **To what, where:** way, deep soft snow, backs

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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 (horses, Hans, sun), 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:pg641:33:67
# text = The horses ploughed their way slowly through the deep soft snow and as they went Hans kept turning to look at the sun, which lay at their backs.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	ploughed	plough	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
7	through	through	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
9	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	Hans	han	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
18	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
26	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	backs	back	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **plough** | past | the horses | horses's way |  | the deep soft snow |  | slowly *property* | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent way=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **go** | past | horses *= horse* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **keep** | past | Hans |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **turn** | gerund | Hans *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive | Hans *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the sun | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at sun=Theme |
| 6 | **lay** | present | the sun |  |  | Hans's backs |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at back=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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