---
title: He was a little brighter than the ashes that you sit grubbing among,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a little brighter than the ashes that you sit grubbing among, you dirty black creature!” said the brothers. Who acts: Cinderlad, ashes, you. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Princess on the Glass Hill, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was a little brighter than the ashes that you sit grubbing among, you dirty black creature!” said the brothers.

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**Who acts:** Cinderlad, ashes, you · **What happens:** be, sit, grub, dirty, say · **To what, where:** black creature, brothers · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cinderlad, ashes, you), 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:pg503:48:88
# text = He was a little brighter than the ashes that you sit grubbing among, you dirty black creature!” said the brothers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	obl	_	_
5	brighter	bright	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	21	ccomp	_	_
6	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	sit	sit	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	grubbing	grub	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
13	among	among	ADP	IN	_	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	dirty	dirty	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Cinderlad |  |  |  |  | than the ashes; a little *obl*; bright *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sit** | present | the ashes |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **grub** | gerund | the ashes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **dirty** | present | you | black creature |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent creature=Patient |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the brothers |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent brother=Topic |

<!-- .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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