---
title: At first all seemed dark, but at length he noticed a tiny spark far,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first all seemed dark, but at length he noticed a tiny spark far, far off, and, plucking up his spirits, he at once went in search of it. Who acts: guardian. 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 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first all seemed dark, but at length he noticed a tiny spark far, far off, and, plucking up his spirits, he at once went in search of it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** guardian · **What happens:** seem, notice, pluck up, go, search · **To what, where:** tiny spark, length, spirits, search

<!-- .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 (guardian), 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:pg641:44:5
# text = At first all seemed dark, but at length he noticed a tiny spark far, far off, and, plucking up his spirits, he at once went in search of it.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	obl	_	_
3	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	advmod	_	_
4	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	spark	spark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
18	off	off	ADV	RB	_	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	plucking	pluck	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	30	advmod	_	_
30	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	search	search	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past |  |  |  |  |  | dark *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **notice** | past | guardian | a tiny spark |  | length |  | far *property* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer spark=Stimulus |
| 3 | **pluck up** | gerund | guardian *not said here* | guardian's spirits |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spirit=Patient |
| 4 | **go** | past | guardian |  |  | search of search |  | once *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in search=Location |
| 5 | **search** |  |  | search |  |  |  |  | nom search «act 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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