---
title: All that they could see was a vast plain, that looked as if it had b… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: All that they could see was a vast plain, that looked as if it had been there since the beginning of the world. Who acts: people, vast plain, plain. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Voice of Death, sentence 59

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All that they could see was a vast plain, that looked as if it had been there since the beginning of the world.

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**Who acts:** people, vast plain, plain · **What happens:** see, be, look, begin · **To what, where:** vast plain, world

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, vast plain, plain), 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:pg540:27:59
# text = All that they could see was a vast plain, that looked as if it had been there since the beginning of the world.
1	All	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	vast	vast	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
18	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advcl	_	_
19	since	since	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	world	world	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | all vast plain |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | past | all vast plain |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** | past · perfect | plain |  |  |  | since the beginning of the world | there *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **begin** |  |  | the world |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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