---
title: The boy hesitated for a moment what he should do; then he crept clos… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The boy hesitated for a moment what he should do; then he crept close up to the man, and lay down by his legs. 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 7

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The boy hesitated for a moment what he should do; then he crept close up to the man, and lay down by his legs.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** hesitate, do, creep, close up, lay down · **To what, where:** boy, moment, man

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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:pg641:44:7
# text = The boy hesitated for a moment what he should do; then he crept close up to the man, and lay down by his legs.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
3	hesitated	hesitate	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	advmod	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
23	down	down	ADP	RP	_	22	compound:prt	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hesitate** | participle |  | the boy *not said here* |  |  | moment |  | vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | should | boy | a moment |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **creep** | past | the boy |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **close up** | infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  | the man |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to man=Recipient |
| 5 | **lay down** | infinitive | the boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by man's legs | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent by leg=Destination |

<!-- .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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