---
title: On the third day he was sitting under the shadow of a tree, playing… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On the third day he was sitting under the shadow of a tree, playing on his flute--and there was nobody in the world who could play a flute better--when one of his sheep strayed across the fence into the flowery fields of the elves, and another and another followed it. Who acts: boy, sitting, world, 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Mogarzea and His Son, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On the third day he was sitting under the shadow of a tree, playing on his flute--and there was nobody in the world who could play a flute better--when one of his sheep strayed across the fence into the flowery fields of the elves, and another and another followed it.

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**Who acts:** boy, sitting, world, one, another · **What happens:** sit, play, be, stray, follow, shadow · **To what, where:** shadow, flute, world, fence, tree

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mogarzea and His Son. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, sitting, world, one), 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:pg641:44:35
# text = On the third day he was sitting under the shadow of a tree, playing on his flute--and there was nobody in the world who could play a flute better--when one of his sheep strayed across the fence into the flowery fields of the elves, and another and another followed it.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	amod	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	csubj	_	_
8	under	under	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
23	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	22	nsubj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	acl:relcl	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	39	advmod	_	_
35	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nsubj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	nmod	_	_
39	strayed	stray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
40	across	across	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	fence	fence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
43	into	into	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	flowery	flowery	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	elves	elf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
52	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	55	nsubj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	52	conj	_	_
55	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
56	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | boy |  |  | the shadow of a tree | day |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under shadow=Location |
| 2 | **play** | gerund |  |  |  | boy's flute |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | sitting |  |  | the world |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **play** | could | the world | a flute |  |  |  | well *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flute=Theme |
| 5 | **stray** | past | one of boy's sheep |  |  | the fence |  | into the flowery fields of the elves | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into field=Destination |
| 6 | **follow** | past | another | flute |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 7 | **shadow** |  |  | a tree |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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