--- title: But directly they took up their position Virgilius girded them about… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: But directly they took up their position Virgilius girded them about with a great river, so that they could neither move hand nor foot, then, hailing the emperor, he offered him peace, and asked for his friendship. Who acts: ears, position, emperor. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew La --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/43/41/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [Virgilius the Sorcerer](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/43/) / 41 # The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 41 But directly they took up their position Virgilius girded them about with a great river, so that they could neither move hand nor foot, then, hailing the emperor, he offered him peace, and asked for his friendship. **Who acts:** ears, position, emperor · **What happens:** take up, gird, move, hail, offer, ask · **To what, where:** ears, hand, emperor, peace, position 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 (ears, position, emperor), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:43:41 # text = But directly they took up their position Virgilius girded them about with a great river, so that they could neither move hand nor foot, then, hailing the emperor, he offered him peace, and asked for his friendship. 1 But but CCONJ CC _ 4 cc _ _ 2 directly directly ADV RB _ 4 advmod _ _ 3 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 4 took take VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 5 up up ADP RP _ 4 compound:prt _ _ 6 their their PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 7 nmod:poss _ _ 7 position position NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 8 Virgilius Virgilius PROPN NNP Number=Sing 7 appos _ _ 9 girded gird VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 10 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 obj _ _ 11 about about ADV RB _ 9 advmod _ _ 12 with with ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 13 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 14 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 river river NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 16 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ _ 17 so so SCONJ IN ExtPos=SCONJ 22 mark _ _ 18 that that SCONJ IN _ 17 fixed _ _ 19 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 nsubj _ _ 20 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 21 neither neither ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 22 move move VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 parataxis _ _ 23 hand hand NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 obj _ _ 24 nor nor CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 25 cc _ _ 25 foot foot NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 27 then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 29 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 29 hailing hail VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 22 advcl _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 emperor emperor NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 33 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 nsubj _ _ 34 offered offer VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 35 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 34 iobj _ _ 36 peace peace NOUN NN Number=Sing 34 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 37 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 38 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 39 asked ask VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 conj _ _ 40 for for ADP IN _ 42 case _ _ 41 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 42 nmod:poss _ _ 42 friendship friendship NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **take up** | past | ears *= ear* | | | | | directly *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 2 | **gird** | past | ears's position | ears *= ear* | | | | with a great river; about *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **move** | could | ears *= ear* | hand nor foot | | | | neither *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent hand=Theme | | 4 | **hail** | gerund | ears *= ear* *not said here* | the emperor | | | then | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent emperor=Theme | | 5 | **offer** | past | emperor | peace | position | | | | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent he=Goal peace=Theme | | 6 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | ears *= ear* *not said here* | | | | | for emperor's friendship | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/43/40/) - next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/43/42/) - ↑ back to [Virgilius the Sorcerer](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/43/)