---
title: He thought, in fact, that the pile of wood rather grew bigger than s… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought, in fact, that the pile of wood rather grew bigger than smaller, in spite of what he took off it; so he let his hands fall by his side, and dried the sweat from his forehead, and was ill at ease, for he knew that it would be bad for him if he was not finished with the work before the witc
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought, in fact, that the pile of wood rather grew bigger than smaller, in spite of what he took off it; so he let his hands fall by his side, and dried the sweat from his forehead, and was ill at ease, for he knew that it would be bad for him if he was not finished with the work before the witch came home.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, pile, hands, witch · **What happens:** think, grow, take off, let, fall, dry · **To what, where:** fact, spite, pile, sweat, forehead, ease · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, pile, hands, witch), 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:pg5615:26:18
# text = He thought, in fact, that the pile of wood rather grew bigger than smaller, in spite of what he took off it; so he let his hands fall by his side, and dried the sweat from his forehead, and was ill at ease, for he knew that it would be bad for him if he was not finished with the work before the witch came home.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	pile	pile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	xcomp	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	smaller	small	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	fall	fall	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	xcomp	_	_
33	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	dried	dry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	sweat	sweat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
41	from	from	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
46	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
47	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	conj	_	_
48	at	at	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	ease	ease	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
51	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
54	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	58	mark	_	_
55	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	nsubj	_	_
56	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
57	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	cop	_	_
58	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	ccomp	_	_
59	for	for	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
60	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	58	obl	_	_
61	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	65	mark	_	_
62	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	65	nsubj	_	_
63	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	65	aux:pass	_	_
64	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	65	advmod	_	_
65	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	53	advcl	_	_
66	with	with	ADP	IN	_	68	case	_	_
67	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	68	det	_	_
68	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	obl	_	_
69	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	72	mark	_	_
70	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	71	det	_	_
71	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	72	nsubj	_	_
72	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	65	advcl	_	_
73	home	home	ADV	RB	_	72	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
74	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | prince |  |  | fact |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **grow** | past | the pile of wood |  |  | spite |  | big *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in spite=Location |
| 3 | **take off** | past | prince | pile |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **let** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | present | prince's hands |  |  |  |  | by prince's side | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by side=Location |
| 6 | **dry** | past |  | the sweat |  | prince's forehead |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient sweat=Result |
| 7 | **is** | past |  |  |  | ease |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **know** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 9 | **is** | would | pile |  |  |  |  | for prince; bad *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **not** **finish** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · passive |  | prince |  |  |  | with the work | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality PP.subeventuality»: subject=Eventuality with work=Subeventuality |
| 11 | **come** | past | the witch |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «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.

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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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