---
title: In a moment it was out of sight, and no man could have told the spot… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a moment it was out of sight, and no man could have told the spot where it had sunk, except for a tiny scrap of paper floating on the water. Who acts: sea, paper. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/18/7/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/18/) / 7

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In a moment it was out of sight, and no man could have told the spot where it had sunk, except for a tiny scrap of paper floating on the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sea, paper · **What happens:** be, tell, sink, float · **To what, where:** sight, man, spot, sea, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sea, paper), 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:pg2435:18:7
# text = In a moment it was out of sight, and no man could have told the spot where it had sunk, except for a tiny scrap of paper floating on the water.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	12	det	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux	_	_
15	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	iobj	_	_
18	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	21	advmod	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	sunk	sink	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
23	except	except	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	scrap	scrap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
30	floating	float	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | sea |  |  | sight | moment |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect · passive |  | no man | the spot |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient spot=Topic |
| 3 | **sink** | past · perfect · passive |  | sea |  |  |  | except a tiny scrap of paper | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **float** | gerund | paper *not said here* |  |  | the water |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/18/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/18/8/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/18/)