---
title: When it was lit the magician threw on it a powder he had about him,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it was lit the magician threw on it a powder he had about him, at the same time saying some magical words. Who acts: lit magician, magician, same time. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, sentence 21

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When it was lit the magician threw on it a powder he had about him, at the same time saying some magical words.

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**Who acts:** lit magician, magician, same time · **What happens:** lit, throw, have, say · **To what, where:** fire, powder, magical words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lit magician, magician, same time), 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:pg503:12:21
# text = When it was lit the magician threw on it a powder he had about him, at the same time saying some magical words.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	lit	lit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	amod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	powder	powder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
21	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
23	magical	magical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lit** | past · passive |  | fire |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **throw** | past | the lit magician | a powder |  | fire |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent powder=Theme on it=Destination |
| 3 | **have** | past | magician |  |  |  | time | about uncle | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the same time *not said here* | some magical words |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=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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