---
title: Then the boy let the flute slip through his fingers, and trod on it,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the boy let the flute slip through his fingers, and trod on it, as if by accident. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mogarzea and His Son, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Mogarzea and His Son, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then the boy let the flute slip through his fingers, and trod on it, as if by accident.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** let, tread · **To what, where:** flute slip, fingers, slip

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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), 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:pg641:44:46
# text = Then the boy let the flute slip through his fingers, and trod on it, as if by accident.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	slip	slip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	through	through	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	fingers	finger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	trod	tread	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	20	case	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	accident	accident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | past | the boy | the flute slip |  | boy's fingers | then |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slip=Theme |
| 2 | **tread** | past | the boy *not said here* |  |  | slip |  | as accident | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on it=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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