---
title: All day they stayed there like flies upon the wall, but during the n… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: All day they stayed there like flies upon the wall, but during the night Virgilius stole softly to the emperor, and offered him his freedom, as long as he would do him justice. Who acts: foes, Virgilius. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependenc
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
All day they stayed there like flies upon the wall, but during the night Virgilius stole softly to the emperor, and offered him his freedom, as long as he would do him justice.

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**Who acts:** foes, Virgilius · **What happens:** stay, steal, offer, do · **To what, where:** freedom, Virgilius, emperor

<!-- .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 (foes, Virgilius), 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:pg641:43:48
# text = All day they stayed there like flies upon the wall, but during the night Virgilius stole softly to the emperor, and offered him his freedom, as long as he would do him justice.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
6	like	like	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	during	during	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
16	Virgilius	Virgilius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	offered	offer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	freedom	freedom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	as	as	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
35	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	obj	_	_
36	justice	justice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stay** | past | foes *= foe* |  |  | there | day | like flies upon the wall | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **steal** | past | Virgilius |  |  |  | night | to the emperor; softly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **offer** | past | foes *= foe* *not said here* | Virgilius's freedom | Virgilius |  |  | long *property* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent he=Goal freedom=Theme |
| 4 | **do** | would | Virgilius | emperor |  |  |  |  | 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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