---
title: The church was empty, but up in front of the altar lay the princess,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The church was empty, but up in front of the altar lay the princess, white and red, like a human being, but sobbing and crying, and shaking with cold in her white shroud. Who acts: church, front, sobbing. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 7, with its depen
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/7/107/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The church was empty, but up in front of the altar lay the princess, white and red, like a human being, but sobbing and crying, and shaking with cold in her white shroud.

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**Who acts:** church, front, sobbing · **What happens:** be, lie, sob, cry, shake · **To what, where:** princess

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (church, front, sobbing), 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:pg5615:7:107
# text = The church was empty, but up in front of the altar lay the princess, white and red, like a human being, but sobbing and crying, and shaking with cold in her white shroud.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
7	up	up	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
21	like	like	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
23	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
24	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	38	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
27	sobbing	sob	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	38	csubj	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	shaking	shake	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	38	csubj	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	obl	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
37	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	shroud	shroud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the church |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past | front of the altar | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location princess=Theme |
| 3 | **sob** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **shake** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | with cold | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent with cold=Co-Patient |
| 6 | **is** | gerund | sobbing |  |  |  |  | like princess's human white shroud | tree rules |

<!-- .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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