---
title: The evil spirit, unable to help itself, did as Virgilius bade him, a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The evil spirit, unable to help itself, did as Virgilius bade him, and then the bolt was drawn back. Who acts: evil spirit, Virgilius. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 17

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The evil spirit, unable to help itself, did as Virgilius bade him, and then the bolt was drawn back.

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**Who acts:** evil spirit, Virgilius · **What happens:** help, do, bade, draw back · **To what, where:** wisdom, spirit, bolt

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (evil spirit, Virgilius), 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:pg641:43:17
# text = The evil spirit, unable to help itself, did as Virgilius bade him, and then the bolt was drawn back.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	unable	unable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	bade	bade	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bolt	bolt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	drawn	draw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
22	back	back	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | to-infinitive | the evil spirit *not said here* | wisdom |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **do** | past | the evil spirit |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **bade** | past | Virgilius | spirit |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **draw back** | past · passive |  | the bolt |  |  | then |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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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