---
title: Are they really pearls?’ he asked, falling on his knees also, and lo… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Are they really pearls?’ he asked, falling on his knees also, and looking up at Tephany he perceived others still more beautiful rolling down the girl’s cheeks. Who acts: pearls, knees, farm. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/33/52/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Are they really pearls?’ he asked, falling on his knees also, and looking up at Tephany he perceived others still more beautiful rolling down the girl’s cheeks.

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**Who acts:** pearls, knees, farm · **What happens:** be, pearl, ask, fall, look up, perceive · **To what, where:** knees, others, cheeks · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pearls, knees, farm), 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:pg3454:33:52
# text = Are they really pearls?’ he asked, falling on his knees also, and looking up at Tephany he perceived others still more beautiful rolling down the girl’s cheeks.
1	Are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	really	really	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
14	also	also	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Tephany	Tephany	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
23	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
24	still	still	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	advmod	_	_
26	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	_
27	rolling	roll	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
28	down	down	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’s	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **does** | present | pearls |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **pearl** |  | knees *= knee* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | farm |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **fall** | gerund | farm *not said here* |  |  | farm's knees |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on knee=Location |
| 5 | **look up** | gerund | farm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at Tephany | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at tephany=Theme |
| 6 | **perceive** | past | farm | others |  |  |  | beautiful *property* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer other=Stimulus |
| 7 | **roll down** | gerund | farm *not said here* | the girl's cheeks |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cheek=Agent |

<!-- .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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