---
title: No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the mother-in-… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors. Who acts: ceremonies. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, sentence 4

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No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors.

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**Who acts:** ceremonies · **What happens:** be, begin, show · **To what, where:** ceremonies, mother

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ceremonies), 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:pg503:11:4
# text = No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ceremonies	ceremony	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	wedding	wedding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	over	over	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
17	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	iobj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	colors	color	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | no ceremonies |  |  |  | of the wedding; soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | no ceremonies |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **show** | to-infinitive | no ceremonies *not said here* |  | mother |  |  | in mother's true colors | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent herself=Patient in color=Topic |

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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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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