---
title: In front of him lay four heaps of silver, and in the midst of them a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In front of him lay four heaps of silver, and in the midst of them a curious white shining stone, marked over with strange characters, such as he had never seen before. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 13, sentence 99

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In front of him lay four heaps of silver, and in the midst of them a curious white shining stone, marked over with strange characters, such as he had never seen before.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** lay, shine, mark over, not see · **To what, where:** four heaps, front, curious white shining stone, strange characters

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg3027:13:99
# text = In front of him lay four heaps of silver, and in the midst of them a curious white shining stone, marked over with strange characters, such as he had never seen before.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	_
5	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	heaps	heap	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	parataxis	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
18	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
19	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	amod	_	_
21	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	marked	mark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
24	over	over	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	characters	character	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
29	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=SCONJ	34	mark	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	fixed	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
33	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	34	advmod	_	_
34	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	acl	_	_
35	before	before	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present |  | four heaps of silver |  | front of man |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent heap=Theme in front=Destination |
| 2 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **mark over** | participle |  | a curious white shining stone *not said here* |  |  |  | with strange characters; over *property* | vn image\_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent with character=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | man | strange characters *not said here* |  |  |  | before *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer character=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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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