---
title: ‘Take them!’ said the uncle; ‘the eldest for the eldest, the second… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Take them!’ said the uncle; ‘the eldest for the eldest, the second for the second, and so on to the youngest.’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 49

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‘Take them!’ said the uncle; ‘the eldest for the eldest, the second for the second, and so on to the youngest.’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** take, say · **To what, where:** daughters, uncle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you), 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:pg641:41:49
# text = ‘Take them!’ said the uncle; ‘the eldest for the eldest, the second for the second, and so on to the youngest.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	2	parataxis	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	on	on	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | daughters *= daughter* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the uncle |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent uncle=Topic |

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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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