---
title: Though they were peasants they were well off, for the soil on which… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Though they were peasants they were well off, for the soil on which they lived was fruitful, and yielded rich crops. Who acts: sons. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 2

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Though they were peasants they were well off, for the soil on which they lived was fruitful, and yielded rich crops.

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**Who acts:** sons · **What happens:** be, live, yield · **To what, where:** soil, rich crops

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons), 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:pg641:36:2
# text = Though they were peasants they were well off, for the soil on which they lived was fruitful, and yielded rich crops.
1	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	peasants	peasant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
8	off	off	ADV	RB	_	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	soil	soil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	fruitful	fruitful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	yielded	yield	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
22	rich	rich	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	crops	crop	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  | off, well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **live** | past | sons *= son* |  |  | the soil |  |  | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on which=Location |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | for the soil; fruitful *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **yield** | past |  | rich crops |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent crop=Theme |

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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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