---
title: Now in a little while he saw the wife of the ogre steal into the roo… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now in a little while he saw the wife of the ogre steal into the room on tiptoe and spread a red cloth over the brothers and then go and cover her daughters with a white cloth. Who acts: Halfman, wife. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/24/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/) / 24

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now in a little while he saw the wife of the ogre steal into the room on tiptoe and spread a red cloth over the brothers and then go and cover her daughters with a white cloth.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Halfman, wife · **What happens:** see, steal, spread, go, cover · **To what, where:** room, red cloth, daughters

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Halfman, wife), 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:pg641:41:24
# text = Now in a little while he saw the wife of the ogre steal into the room on tiptoe and spread a red cloth over the brothers and then go and cover her daughters with a white cloth.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	steal	steal	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	tiptoe	tiptoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	spread	spread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
24	over	over	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	cover	cover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
32	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	daughters	daughter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Halfman |  |  |  | now; while |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **steal** | present | the wife of the ogre |  |  | the room on tiptoe |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **spread** | past | Halfman *not said here* | a red cloth |  |  |  | over the brothers | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme over brother=Destination |
| 4 | **go** | infinitive | Halfman *not said here* |  |  |  | then |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **cover** | infinitive | Halfman *not said here* |  | wife's daughters |  |  | with a white cloth | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent daughter=Destination with cloth=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Halfman](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/41/)