---
title: There, dancing on the current, was the point of something white, whi… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There, dancing on the current, was the point of something white, which became more and more distant the longer they watched it. Who acts: dancing, eyes. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 37, sentence 65

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There, dancing on the current, was the point of something white, which became more and more distant the longer they watched it.

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**Who acts:** dancing, eyes · **What happens:** dance, be, become, watch · **To what, where:** current, point

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dancing, eyes), 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:pg3027:37:65
# text = There, dancing on the current, was the point of something white, which became more and more distant the longer they watched it.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	csubj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	current	current	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	point	point	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	nmod	_	_
13	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	16	advmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	_
20	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	24	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dance** | gerund |  |  |  | the current |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on current=Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | dancing | the point |  |  |  | of something | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past |  |  |  |  |  | distant *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **watch** | past | eyes *= eye* | point |  |  |  | long *property* | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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