---
title: So the other trolls had to come and wash, but, the more they did, th… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the other trolls had to come and wash, but, the more they did, the blacker and uglier grew the shirt, until at length it was as black as if it had been up the chimney. Who acts: other trolls, spots, blacker, shirt. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of th
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, sentence 146

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the other trolls had to come and wash, but, the more they did, the blacker and uglier grew the shirt, until at length it was as black as if it had been up the chimney.

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**Who acts:** other trolls, spots, blacker, shirt · **What happens:** have, come, wash, do, grow, be · **To what, where:** shirt, length

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (other trolls, spots, blacker, shirt), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg503:4:146
# text = So the other trolls had to come and wash, but, the more they did, the blacker and uglier grew the shirt, until at length it was as black as if it had been up the chimney.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	trolls	troll	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	16	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	blacker	black	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	nsubj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	uglier	ugly	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	conj	_	_
22	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	parataxis	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	shirt	shirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	as	as	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	conj	_	_
33	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	40	case	_	_
34	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	fixed	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
37	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	40	cop	_	_
38	up	up	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	chimney	chimney	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the other trolls |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | to-infinitive | the other trolls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wash** | infinitive | the other trolls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **do** | past | spots *= spot* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **grow** | past | the blacker | the shirt |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shirt=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | shirt |  |  | length |  | black *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | past · perfect | shirt |  |  |  |  | as the chimney | tree rules |

<!-- .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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