---
title: While he was still quite little, his father died, and the kinsmen, i… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: While he was still quite little, his father died, and the kinsmen, instead of being a help and protection to the child and his mother, robbed them of their lands and money, and the widow, fearing that they might take the boy’s life also, sent him away to Spain, that he might study in the great Unive
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 2

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While he was still quite little, his father died, and the kinsmen, instead of being a help and protection to the child and his mother, robbed them of their lands and money, and the widow, fearing that they might take the boy’s life also, sent him away to Spain, that he might study in the great University of Toledo.

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**Who acts:** boy, father, kinsmen · **What happens:** be, die, rob, fear, take, send away · **To what, where:** widow, child, life, boy, Spain, great University

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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 (boy, father, kinsmen), 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:pg641:43:2
# text = While he was still quite little, his father died, and the kinsmen, instead of being a help and protection to the child and his mother, robbed them of their lands and money, and the widow, fearing that they might take the boy’s life also, sent him away to Spain, that he might study in the great University of Toledo.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	still	still	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	kinsmen	kinsman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	20	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
18	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	protection	protection	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
30	robbed	rob	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	lands	land	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	widow	widow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
42	fearing	fear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	advcl	_	_
43	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
45	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	42	advcl	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	’s	's	PART	POS	_	48	case	_	_
50	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
51	also	also	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
53	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
54	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	obj	_	_
55	away	away	ADV	RB	_	53	advmod	_	_
56	to	to	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
57	Spain	Spain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
59	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	62	mark	_	_
60	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	62	nsubj	_	_
61	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	62	aux	_	_
62	study	study	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	advcl	_	_
63	in	in	ADP	IN	_	66	case	_	_
64	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
65	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	_
66	University	University	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	62	obl	_	_
67	of	of	ADP	IN	_	68	case	_	_
68	Toledo	Toledo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	66	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
69	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  | still | little *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **die** | past | boy's father | the widow |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | instead a help and protection; to the child and boy's mother | tree rules |
| 4 | **rob** | past | the kinsmen | child |  |  |  | of kinsmen's lands and money | vn rob-10.6.4 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent they=Theme of land=Source |
| 5 | **fear** | gerund | boy's father *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **take** | might | kinsmen *= kinsman* | the boy's life |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 7 | **send away** | past | boy's father *not said here* | boy | Spain |  |  | away *property* | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 8 | **study** | might | boy |  |  | the great University of Toledo |  |  | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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