---
title: They came in crowds, and the kettle was passed from hand to hand, an… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They came in crowds, and the kettle was passed from hand to hand, and they were allowed to examine it all over, and even to look inside. Who acts: people. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 16

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They came in crowds, and the kettle was passed from hand to hand, and they were allowed to examine it all over, and even to look inside.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** come, pass, allow, examine, look · **To what, where:** crowds, kettle, hand, people

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg2435:39:16
# text = They came in crowds, and the kettle was passed from hand to hand, and they were allowed to examine it all over, and even to look inside.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	crowds	crowd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	allowed	allow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	examine	examine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	all	all	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	over	over	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	even	even	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
30	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | people |  |  | crowds |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in crowd=Location |
| 2 | **pass** | past · passive |  | the kettle |  | hand |  | to hand | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: subject=Theme from hand=Initial\_Location to hand=Destination |
| 3 | **allow** | past · passive |  | people |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **examine** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | kettle |  |  |  | over *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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