---
title: But one afternoon, when the boys were given a holiday, he took a lon… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But one afternoon, when the boys were given a holiday, he took a long walk, and found himself in a place where he had never been before. Who acts: boy. 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 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But one afternoon, when the boys were given a holiday, he took a long walk, and found himself in a place where he had never been before.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** give, take, find, not be · **To what, where:** one afternoon, long walk, boy, place

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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), 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:pg641:43:4
# text = But one afternoon, when the boys were given a holiday, he took a long walk, and found himself in a place where he had never been before.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	9	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	holiday	holiday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	walk	walk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
21	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	30	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
28	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	cop	_	_
30	before	before	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past · passive |  | one afternoon |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient holiday=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | boy | a long walk |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent walk=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | boy *not said here* | boy |  | a place |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past · perfect | boy |  |  |  |  | before *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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