---
title: But the guests were less astonished at the brilliancy of the diamond… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the guests were less astonished at the brilliancy of the diamonds than at the beauty of the bride, which was beyond anything they had ever seen or heard of. Who acts: beauty, guests. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the guests were less astonished at the brilliancy of the diamonds than at the beauty of the bride, which was beyond anything they had ever seen or heard of.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** beauty, guests · **What happens:** astonish, be, see, hear · **To what, where:** guests, brilliancy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Maiden With the Wooden Helmet. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beauty, guests), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:31:46
# text = But the guests were less astonished at the brilliancy of the diamonds than at the beauty of the bride, which was beyond anything they had ever seen or heard of.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	guests	guest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
5	less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	6	advmod	_	_
6	astonished	astonish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	brilliancy	brilliancy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	diamonds	diamond	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	16	conj	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	28	advmod	_	_
28	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	conj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **astonish** | past · passive |  | the guests |  | the brilliancy of the diamonds |  | than the beauty of the bride; less *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | the beauty of the bride |  |  |  |  | beyond anything | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | past · perfect | guests *= guest* |  |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **hear** | participle | guests *= guest* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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