---
title: He went down perches and perches, while it was as dark about him as… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He went down perches and perches, while it was as dark about him as if he was in a big pot with a cover on. Who acts: youngest, rope. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/105/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/) / 105

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He went down perches and perches, while it was as dark about him as if he was in a big pot with a cover on.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youngest, rope · **What happens:** go down, perch, be · **To what, where:** big pot

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youngest, rope), 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:pg3454:10:105
# text = He went down perches and perches, while it was as dark about him as if he was in a big pot with a cover on.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	down	down	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	perches	perch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	obl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	perches	perch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	advcl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	cover	cover	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | youngest *= young* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **perch** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **perch** | present | youngest *= young* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | rope |  |  |  |  | about youngest *= young*; dark *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past | youngest *= young* |  |  | a big pot and a cover |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/104/)
- next →: [sentence 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/106/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/)