---
title: It seemed to the merchant very strange that no snow had fallen in th… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It seemed to the merchant very strange that no snow had fallen in the avenue, which was entirely composed of orange trees, covered with flowers and fruit. Who acts: It, snow, orange trees. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Beauty and the Beast, part 1, sentence 33

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It seemed to the merchant very strange that no snow had fallen in the avenue, which was entirely composed of orange trees, covered with flowers and fruit.

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**Who acts:** It, snow, orange trees · **What happens:** seem, fall, compose, cover · **To what, where:** avenue, orange trees

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Beauty and the Beast, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, snow, orange trees), 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:pg503:14:33
# text = It seemed to the merchant very strange that no snow had fallen in the avenue, which was entirely composed of orange trees, covered with flowers and fruit.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	10	det	_	_
10	snow	snow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	fallen	fall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	avenue	avenue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
19	entirely	entirely	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	composed	compose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl:relcl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	orange	orange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	acl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | It |  |  |  |  | to the merchant; strange *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fall** | past · perfect | no snow |  |  | the avenue |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in avenue=Location |
| 3 | **compose** | past · passive | orange trees | the avenue |  |  |  | entirely *property* | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Result |
| 4 | **cover** | participle |  | orange trees *not said here* |  |  |  | with flowers and fruit | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with flower=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 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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