---
title: Aladdin was seized by a desire to see her face, which was very diffi… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Aladdin was seized by a desire to see her face, which was very difficult, as she always went veiled. Who acts: desire, face. 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 63

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Aladdin was seized by a desire to see her face, which was very difficult, as she always went veiled.

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**Who acts:** desire, face · **What happens:** seize, see, be, veil · **To what, where:** Aladdin, face

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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 (desire, face), 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:pg503:12:63
# text = Aladdin was seized by a desire to see her face, which was very difficult, as she always went veiled.
1	Aladdin	Aladdin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	seized	seize	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	very	very	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	20	advmod	_	_
20	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	veiled	veil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seize** | past · passive | a desire | Aladdin |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | a desire *not said here* | Princess's face |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer face=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past | Princess's face |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **veil** | past · passive | a desire *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination» |

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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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