---
title: They could see neither moon nor stars, but in the Queen’s neck-handk… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They could see neither moon nor stars, but in the Queen’s neck-handkerchief there was a carbuncle which glowed like fifty torches. Who acts: dagger, carbuncle. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/4/17/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Princess Mayblossom, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/4/) / 17

# The Red Fairy Book, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could see neither moon nor stars, but in the Queen’s neck-handkerchief there was a carbuncle which glowed like fifty torches.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dagger, carbuncle · **What happens:** see, be, glow · **To what, where:** moon, neck handkerchief

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess Mayblossom, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dagger, carbuncle), 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:pg540:4:17
# text = They could see neither moon nor stars, but in the Queen’s neck-handkerchief there was a carbuncle which glowed like fifty torches.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	5	cc:preconj	_	_
5	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	7	cc	_	_
7	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Queen	Queen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	’s	's	PART	POS	_	12	case	_	_
14	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	carbuncle	carbuncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	glowed	glow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	like	like	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	torches	torch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | dagger | moon nor stars |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer moon=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | past | a carbuncle |  |  | the Queen's neck handkerchief; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in handkerchief=Location |
| 3 | **glow** | past | a carbuncle |  |  |  |  | like fifty torches | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/4/16/)
- next →: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/4/18/)
- ↑ back to [The Princess Mayblossom, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/4/)