---
title: As it approached she could make out that it was a boat, and could se… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As it approached she could make out that it was a boat, and could see the figure of some one sitting in it and rowing it. Who acts: sea, Queen. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31), sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As it approached she could make out that it was a boat, and could see the figure of some one sitting in it and rowing it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sea, Queen · **What happens:** approach, make out, be, see, row, figure · **To what, where:** boat, figure, sea, one sitting

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch in the Stone Boat(31). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sea, Queen), 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:pg640:47:17
# text = As it approached she could make out that it was a boat, and could see the figure of some one sitting in it and rowing it.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	boat	boat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	sitting	sitting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	rowing	row	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | sea |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make out** | could | Queen |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | sea | a boat |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | could | Queen *not said here* | the figure of some one sitting in sea |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer figure=Stimulus |
| 5 | **row** | gerund | Queen *not said here* | sea |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent it=Location |
| 6 | **figure** |  |  | some one sitting in sea |  |  |  |  | nom figure «communication 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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