---
title: What was his surprise to see reflected in the mirror, not his own fa… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What was his surprise to see reflected in the mirror, not his own face, but that of a young girl as lovely as the morning! A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 20

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What was his surprise to see reflected in the mirror, not his own face, but that of a young girl as lovely as the morning!

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**What happens:** be, see, reflect · **To what, where:** surprise, mirror

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg640:11:20
# text = What was his surprise to see reflected in the mirror, not his own face, but that of a young girl as lovely as the morning!
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	reflected	reflect	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	xcomp	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	mirror	mirror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | Saphir's surprise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **reflect** | participle |  |  |  | the mirror and Saphir's own face |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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