---
title: Every day the little girl seemed to grow prettier, and people used t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Every day the little girl seemed to grow prettier, and people used to say she would soon be as beautiful as her godmother, but no one knew, except the nurse, that at night, when the child slept, a strange and lovely lady bent over her. Who acts: little girl, people, girl, one. A sentence of «The Vio
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Child Who Came From an Egg, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Every day the little girl seemed to grow prettier, and people used to say she would soon be as beautiful as her godmother, but no one knew, except the nurse, that at night, when the child slept, a strange and lovely lady bent over her.

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**Who acts:** little girl, people, girl, one, child · **What happens:** seem, grow, use, say, be, know · **To what, where:** strange lady · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Child Who Came From an Egg. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little girl, people, girl, one), 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:pg641:12:49
# text = Every day the little girl seemed to grow prettier, and people used to say she would soon be as beautiful as her godmother, but no one knew, except the nurse, that at night, when the child slept, a strange and lovely lady bent over her.
1	Every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	prettier	pretty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
18	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	21	advmod	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
20	as	as	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
22	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	godmother	godmother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	28	det	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	except	except	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	nurse	nurse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	nmod	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
39	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	42	advmod	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
42	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
45	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	conj	_	_
48	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
49	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	48	acl	_	_
50	over	over	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the little girl |  |  |  | day |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **grow** | to-infinitive | the little girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | pretty *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **use** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | would | girl |  |  |  |  | as girl's godmother; beautiful, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **know** | past | no one |  |  |  | night | except the nurse  that | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **sleep** | past | the child | a strange lady |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **bend** | participle |  | a strange lady *not said here* |  |  |  | over nurse | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over she=Location |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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