---
title: When Halfman was quite sure she was sound asleep, he took the red cl… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When Halfman was quite sure she was sound asleep, he took the red cloth from his brothers and put it on the girls, and laid their white cloth over his brothers. Who acts: Halfman, wife. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Halfman was quite sure she was sound asleep, he took the red cloth from his brothers and put it on the girls, and laid their white cloth over his brothers.

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**Who acts:** Halfman, wife · **What happens:** be, take, put, lay · **To what, where:** red cloth, cloth, white cloth

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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:pg641:41:26
# text = When Halfman was quite sure she was sound asleep, he took the red cloth from his brothers and put it on the girls, and laid their white cloth over his brothers.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
2	Halfman	Halfman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	sound	sound	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
28	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Halfman |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | asleep *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past | Halfman | the red cloth |  |  |  | from Halfman's brothers | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme from brother=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | Halfman *not said here* | cloth |  |  |  | on the girls | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on girl=Destination |
| 5 | **lay** | past | Halfman *not said here* | girls's white cloth |  |  |  | over Halfman's brothers | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme over brother=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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