---
title: These were the wood-nymphs, daughters of the earth-mother, who came… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: These were the wood-nymphs, daughters of the earth-mother, who came every night to hold their dances, in the forest. Who acts: These, earth mother, daughters. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
These were the wood-nymphs, daughters of the earth-mother, who came every night to hold their dances, in the forest.

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**Who acts:** These, earth mother, daughters · **What happens:** be, come, hold, dance · **To what, where:** wood nymphs, dances, forest

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (These, earth mother, daughters), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg641:34:40
# text = These were the wood-nymphs, daughters of the earth-mother, who came every night to hold their dances, in the forest.
1	These	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	nymphs	nymph	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	dances	dance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | These | the wood nymphs and daughters of the earth mother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | the earth mother |  |  |  | night |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hold** | to-infinitive | the earth mother *not said here* | daughters's dances |  | the forest |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent dance=Theme in forest=Location |
| 4 | **dance** |  | daughters *= daughter* |  |  |  |  |  | nom dance «communication 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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