---
title: So while they stood laughing at the shattered stone he placed the ri… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So while they stood laughing at the shattered stone he placed the ring, as if in play, upon the third finger of his left hand. Who acts: stone, finger. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 130

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So while they stood laughing at the shattered stone he placed the ring, as if in play, upon the third finger of his left hand.

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**Who acts:** stone, finger · **What happens:** stand, laugh, place · **To what, where:** shattered stone, ring

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stone, finger), 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:pg640:5:130
# text = So while they stood laughing at the shattered stone he placed the ring, as if in play, upon the third finger of his left hand.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	shattered	shattered	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	third	third	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	amod	_	_
23	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | stone |  |  |  |  | as play; upon the third finger of finger's left hand | vn admire-31.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **laugh** | gerund | stone *not said here* |  |  | the shattered stone |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **place** | past | finger | the ring |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent ring=Theme |

<!-- .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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