---
title: But so it was; and as the steeple opposite was touched by the golden… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But so it was; and as the steeple opposite was touched by the golden light, the poor man shut his eyes and sprang forward. Who acts: golden light, poor man. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/20/11/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 11

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But so it was; and as the steeple opposite was touched by the golden light, the poor man shut his eyes and sprang forward.

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**Who acts:** golden light, poor man · **What happens:** touch, shut, spring · **To what, where:** look, eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (golden light, poor man), 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:pg3454:20:11
# text = But so it was; and as the steeple opposite was touched by the golden light, the poor man shut his eyes and sprang forward.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	steeple	steeple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	opposite	opposite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	touched	touch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	shut	shut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
26	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **touch** | past · passive | the golden light | look |  |  |  | as the steeple opposite | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **shut** | past | the poor man | man's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 3 | **spring** | past | the poor man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | forward *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=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 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.

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