---
title: It was still starlight when she left the palace on a snow-white donk… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was still starlight when she left the palace on a snow-white donkey, and rode away from the river straight to the west. Who acts: way, princess, starlight. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 5

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It was still starlight when she left the palace on a snow-white donkey, and rode away from the river straight to the west.

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**Who acts:** way, princess, starlight · **What happens:** be, leave, ride away · **To what, where:** starlight, palace, river

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, princess, starlight), 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:pg3282:26:5
# text = It was still starlight when she left the palace on a snow-white donkey, and rode away from the river straight to the west.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	starlight	starlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
12	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
19	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	west	west	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | way | starlight |  |  | still |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **leave** | past | princess | the palace |  |  |  | on a white donkey | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent palace=Theme on donkey=Location |
| 3 | **ride away** | past | starlight *not said here* |  |  | the river |  | to the west; away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent from river=Trajectory |

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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 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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