---
title: But in spite of the deep shadows cast by the wide-spreading branches… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But in spite of the deep shadows cast by the wide-spreading branches of the trees, the grass underneath was soft and green, and covered with the rarest flowers. Who acts: grass. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 2, sentence 56

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But in spite of the deep shadows cast by the wide-spreading branches of the trees, the grass underneath was soft and green, and covered with the rarest flowers.

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**Who acts:** grass · **What happens:** cast, spread, be, cover, spite · **To what, where:** deep shadows, spite

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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: who acts (grass), 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:pg640:11:56
# text = But in spite of the deep shadows cast by the wide-spreading branches of the trees, the grass underneath was soft and green, and covered with the rarest flowers.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	shadows	shadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
8	cast	cast	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
11	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	amod	_	_
14	branches	branch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	underneath	underneath	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	rarest	rare	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	32	amod	_	_
32	flowers	flower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cast** | participle |  | the deep shadows *not said here* |  |  |  | by the spreading branches of the trees | vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent by branch=Destination |
| 2 | **spread** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the grass |  |  | spite of the deep shadows |  | soft *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the grass *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **cover** | participle | the grass *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the rarest flowers | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with flower=Theme |
| 6 | **spite** |  |  | the deep shadows |  |  |  |  | nom spite «feeling transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 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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