---
title: In front was a flight of steps, and on these the queen was sitting w… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In front was a flight of steps, and on these the queen was sitting wrapped in a veil of shining silver mist, listening to the complaints of her people and dealing out justice. Who acts: veil, people. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dep
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In front was a flight of steps, and on these the queen was sitting wrapped in a veil of shining silver mist, listening to the complaints of her people and dealing out justice.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** veil, people · **What happens:** be, wrap, shine, listen, deal out, complain · **To what, where:** flight, front, veil, silver mist, justice

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (veil, people), 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:pg2435:19:11
# text = In front was a flight of steps, and on these the queen was sitting wrapped in a veil of shining silver mist, listening to the complaints of her people and dealing out justice.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	flight	flight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	veil	veil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
22	silver	silver	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	mist	mist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	complaints	complaint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	dealing	deal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	conj	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	justice	justice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a flight |  | front |  | of steps | tree rules |
| 2 | **wrap** | gerund · passive |  |  |  | a veil |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: in veil=Destination |
| 3 | **shine** | gerund | a veil *not said here* | silver mist |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent mist=Theme |
| 4 | **listen** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to the complaints of princess's people | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to complaint=Theme |
| 5 | **deal out** | gerund |  | justice |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent justice=Theme |
| 6 | **complain** |  | princess's people |  |  |  |  |  | nom complaint «state intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 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.

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