---
title: Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark. Who acts: wise green eyes. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 30

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Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark.

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**Who acts:** wise green eyes · **What happens:** live, shine, see · **To what, where:** cat, dark

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, 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 (wise green eyes), 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:pg5615:1:30
# text = Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	marvellous	marvellous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	shining	shine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
31	even	even	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  | a cat of marvellous beauty |  | there | time | with a skin as soft; once *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme cat=Location |
| 2 | **shine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | as silk | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | could | wise green eyes |  |  | the dark |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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