---
title: Underneath was a small hole, and out of this the evil spirit gradual… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Underneath was a small hole, and out of this the evil spirit gradually wriggled himself; but it took some time, for when at last he stood upon the ground he proved to be about three times as large as Virgilius himself, and coal black besides. Who acts: it, spirit. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Boo
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Underneath was a small hole, and out of this the evil spirit gradually wriggled himself; but it took some time, for when at last he stood upon the ground he proved to be about three times as large as Virgilius himself, and coal black besides.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, spirit · **What happens:** be, wriggle, take, stand, prove · **To what, where:** small hole, spirit, evil spirit, last

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (it, spirit), 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:pg641:43:18
# text = Underneath was a small hole, and out of this the evil spirit gradually wriggled himself; but it took some time, for when at last he stood upon the ground he proved to be about three times as large as Virgilius himself, and coal black besides.
1	Underneath	underneath	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	nsubj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	gradually	gradually	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	wriggled	wriggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
30	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
34	proved	prove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	parataxis	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	cop	_	_
37	about	about	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nummod	_	_
39	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
40	as	as	ADV	RB	_	41	advmod	_	_
41	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	ccomp	_	_
42	as	as	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	_
44	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
47	coal	coal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	compound	_	_
48	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	_
49	besides	besides	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	48	flat:foreign	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a small hole |  |  |  | underneath *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **wriggle** | past |  | spirit |  | the evil spirit |  | gradually *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past | it |  |  |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **stand** | past | spirit |  |  | last |  | upon the ground | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at last=Location |
| 5 | **prove** | past | spirit |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | spirit *not said here* |  |  |  | time | as Virgilius; Virgilius *obl*; large *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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