---
title: Inside, lying on a soft bed of cotton, were two babies, a boy and a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Inside, lying on a soft bed of cotton, were two babies, a boy and a girl, who opened their eyes and smiled at him. Who acts: two babies, boy. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 32, sentence 93

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Inside, lying on a soft bed of cotton, were two babies, a boy and a girl, who opened their eyes and smiled at him.

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**Who acts:** two babies, boy · **What happens:** lie, be, open, smile · **To what, where:** soft bed, boy, eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 32. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two babies, boy), 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:pg3027:32:93
# text = Inside, lying on a soft bed of cotton, were two babies, a boy and a girl, who opened their eyes and smiled at him.
1	Inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	cotton	cotton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	babies	baby	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	smiled	smile	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | gerund | two babies *not said here* |  |  | a soft bed of cotton |  | inside *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bed=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | two babies | a boy and a girl |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **open** | past | a boy and a girl | babies's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme |
| 4 | **smile** | past | a boy and a girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at bird | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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 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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