---
title: The old couple's eyes glittered greedily; but custom forbade them to… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old couple's eyes glittered greedily; but custom forbade them to touch the price before all was arranged. Who acts: eyes, custom. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 7

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The old couple's eyes glittered greedily; but custom forbade them to touch the price before all was arranged.

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**Who acts:** eyes, custom · **What happens:** glitter, forbid, touch, arrange · **To what, where:** eyes, price, all

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, custom), 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:pg3027:21:7
# text = The old couple's eyes glittered greedily; but custom forbade them to touch the price before all was arranged.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	glittered	glitter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	forbade	forbid	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	touch	touch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	price	price	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	arranged	arrange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **glitter** | past | the old couple's eyes |  |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **forbid** | past | custom | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **touch** | to-infinitive | custom *not said here* | the price |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme price=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **arrange** | past · passive |  | all |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product |

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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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