---
title: It was a dark patch, and seemed, as she looked, to grow longer and l… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a dark patch, and seemed, as she looked, to grow longer and longer, and to be moving slowly towards the cushions on which the prince was lying. Who acts: room, dark patch, princess, prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a dark patch, and seemed, as she looked, to grow longer and longer, and to be moving slowly towards the cushions on which the prince was lying.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** room, dark patch, princess, prince · **What happens:** be, seem, look, grow, move, lie · **To what, where:** dark patch, cushions

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (room, dark patch, princess, prince), 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:pg3282:25:75
# text = It was a dark patch, and seemed, as she looked, to grow longer and longer, and to be moving slowly towards the cushions on which the prince was lying.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	patch	patch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
16	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	15	advmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	moving	move	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	xcomp	_	_
24	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	cushions	cushion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	obl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | room | a dark patch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seem** | past | a dark patch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 3 | **look** | past | princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **grow** | to-infinitive | princess *not said here* |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **move** | to-infinitive · progressive | a dark patch *not said here* |  |  | the cushions |  | slowly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme towards cushion=Trajectory |
| 6 | **lie** | past · progressive | the prince |  |  | the cushions |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on which=Location |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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