---
title: But then a strange thing happened: the pearls began to lose their wh… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But then a strange thing happened: the pearls began to lose their whiteness and grew quite dim in colour; then they grew blacker and blacker till at last they were just like so many cinders. Who acts: strange thing, pearls. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Jesper Who Herded the Hares, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But then a strange thing happened: the pearls began to lose their whiteness and grew quite dim in colour; then they grew blacker and blacker till at last they were just like so many cinders.

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**Who acts:** strange thing, pearls · **What happens:** happen, begin, lose, grow, be · **To what, where:** whiteness

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jesper Who Herded the Hares. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (strange thing, pearls), 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:pg641:24:33
# text = But then a strange thing happened: the pearls began to lose their whiteness and grew quite dim in colour; then they grew blacker and blacker till at last they were just like so many cinders.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	pearls	pearl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	whiteness	whiteness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
17	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	dim	dim	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
25	blacker	black	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	24	xcomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	blacker	black	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	conj	_	_
28	till	till	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
33	just	just	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
34	like	like	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	cinders	cinder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | a strange thing |  |  |  | then |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the pearls |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **lose** | to-infinitive | the pearls *not said here* | pearls's whiteness |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whiteness=Eventuality |
| 4 | **grow** | past | the pearls *not said here* |  |  |  |  | dim *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **grow** | past | pearls *= pearl* |  |  |  | then | black *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | pearls *= pearl* |  |  |  | till last many cinders |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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