---
title: In the middle of the temple was an altar, on which lay a book, and b… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the temple was an altar, on which lay a book, and behind the altar hung a great curtain. Who acts: temple. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, sentence 67

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In the middle of the temple was an altar, on which lay a book, and behind the altar hung a great curtain.

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**Who acts:** temple · **What happens:** be, lie, hang · **To what, where:** book, middle, great curtain, altar

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (temple), 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:pg640:17:67
# text = In the middle of the temple was an altar, on which lay a book, and behind the altar hung a great curtain.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	temple	temple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	book	book	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	altar	altar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the temple |  |  |  |  | of a altar | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past |  | a book |  | the middle |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location book=Theme |
| 3 | **hang** | past |  | a great curtain |  | the altar |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent curtain=Theme behind altar=Destination |

<!-- .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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