---
title: The walls were of the finest porcelain in all the most delicate colo… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The walls were of the finest porcelain in all the most delicate colors, and the Prince saw that all the stories he had ever read were pictured upon them; but as he was terribly wet, and the rain still fell in torrents, he could not stay to look about any more, but came back to the golden door. Who a
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 19

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The walls were of the finest porcelain in all the most delicate colors, and the Prince saw that all the stories he had ever read were pictured upon them; but as he was terribly wet, and the rain still fell in torrents, he could not stay to look about any more, but came back to the golden door.

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**Who acts:** walls, Prince, two, rain · **What happens:** be, see, read, picture, fall, not stay · **To what, where:** delicate colors, finest porcelain, stories, torrents, golden door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, 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 (walls, Prince, two, rain), 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:pg503:23:19
# text = The walls were of the finest porcelain in all the most delicate colors, and the Prince saw that all the stories he had ever read were pictured upon them; but as he was terribly wet, and the rain still fell in torrents, he could not stay to look about any more, but came back to the golden door.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	walls	wall	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	7	amod	_	_
7	porcelain	porcelain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	13	det:predet	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	12	advmod	_	_
12	delicate	delicate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	colors	color	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
26	read	read	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	pictured	picture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	ccomp	_	_
29	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	50	punct	_	_
32	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
33	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	terribly	terribly	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
42	still	still	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
43	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
44	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	torrents	torrent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
47	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
48	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
49	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	50	advmod	_	_
50	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
51	to	to	PART	TO	_	52	mark	_	_
52	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	xcomp	_	_
53	about	about	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	52	obl	_	_
55	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	52	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	58	punct	_	_
57	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	58	cc	_	_
58	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
59	back	back	ADV	RB	_	58	advmod	_	_
60	to	to	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
61	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	63	det	_	_
62	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	63	amod	_	_
63	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the walls |  |  | all delicate colors |  | of the finest porcelain | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | the Prince | the finest porcelain *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **read** | past · perfect | two | all stories *not said here* |  |  | ever |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Topic |
| 4 | **picture** | past · passive |  | all stories |  |  |  | upon Princes *= prince* | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | two |  |  |  |  | terribly, wet *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fall** | past | the rain |  |  | torrents | still |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in torrent=Location |
| 7 | **not** **stay** | could | two |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **look** | to-infinitive | two *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about any | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent about any=Theme |
| 9 | **come back** | past | the Prince *not said here* |  |  | the golden door |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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