---
title: And receiving permission they began to dig, and when the messengers… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And receiving permission they began to dig, and when the messengers had almost undermined the Capitol they stole away as secretly as they had come. Who acts: workers, Capitol. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 85

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And receiving permission they began to dig, and when the messengers had almost undermined the Capitol they stole away as secretly as they had come.

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**Who acts:** workers, Capitol · **What happens:** receive, begin, dig, undermine, steal away, come · **To what, where:** permission, messengers

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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 (workers, Capitol), 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:pg641:43:85
# text = And receiving permission they began to dig, and when the messengers had almost undermined the Capitol they stole away as secretly as they had come.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	receiving	receive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	dig	dig	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	messengers	messenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	undermined	undermine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Capitol	Capitol	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	secretly	secretly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **receive** | gerund |  | permission |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent permission=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | workers *= worker* | permission *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **dig** | to-infinitive | workers *= worker* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **undermine** | past · perfect · passive |  | the messengers |  |  |  | almost *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **steal away** | past | the Capitol |  |  |  |  | away, secretly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | past · perfect | workers *= worker* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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