--- title: Thousands of snakes, big and little and of every colour, were gather… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: Thousands of snakes, big and little and of every colour, were gathered together in one great cluster round a huge serpent, whose body was as thick as a beam, and which had on its head a golden crown, from which the light sprang. Who acts: body, light. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/34/22/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/34/) / 22 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 22 Thousands of snakes, big and little and of every colour, were gathered together in one great cluster round a huge serpent, whose body was as thick as a beam, and which had on its head a golden crown, from which the light sprang. **Who acts:** body, light · **What happens:** gather, be, have, spring · **To what, where:** one great cluster, golden crown, head This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (body, light), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:34:22 # text = Thousands of snakes, big and little and of every colour, were gathered together in one great cluster round a huge serpent, whose body was as thick as a beam, and which had on its head a golden crown, from which the light sprang. 1 Thousands thousand NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nsubj _ _ 2 of of ADP IN _ 3 case _ _ 3 snakes snake NOUN NNS Number=Plur 1 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 4 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 5 big big ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 0 root _ _ 6 and and CCONJ CC _ 7 cc _ _ 7 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 5 conj _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 9 of of ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 every every DET DT PronType=Tot 11 det _ _ 11 colour colour NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 13 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 aux:pass _ _ 14 gathered gather VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 5 conj _ _ 15 together together ADV RB _ 14 advmod _ _ 16 in in ADP IN _ 19 case _ _ 17 one one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 19 nummod _ _ 18 great great ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 19 amod _ _ 19 cluster cluster NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ _ 20 round round ADP IN _ 23 case _ _ 21 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 22 huge huge ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 23 serpent serpent NOUN NN Number=Sing 19 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 29 punct _ _ 25 whose whose PRON WP$ Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel 26 nmod:poss _ _ 26 body body NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 27 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 29 cop _ _ 28 as as ADV RB _ 29 advmod _ _ 29 thick thick ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 23 amod _ _ 30 as as ADP IN _ 32 case _ _ 31 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 32 det _ _ 32 beam beam NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 36 cc _ _ 35 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 36 nsubj _ _ 36 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 37 on on ADP IN _ 39 case _ _ 38 its its PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 39 nmod:poss _ _ 39 head head NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obl _ _ 40 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 42 det _ _ 41 golden golden ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 42 amod _ _ 42 crown crown NOUN NN Number=Sing 36 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 43 , , PUNCT , _ 48 punct _ _ 44 from from ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 45 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 48 obl _ _ 46 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 47 det _ _ 47 light light NOUN NN Number=Sing 48 nsubj _ _ 48 sprang spring VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 36 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 49 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **gather** | past · passive | | | | one great cluster round a huge serpent | | of every colour; together *property* | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V» | | 2 | **is** | past | body | | | | | as a beam; thick *property* | tree rules | | 3 | **have** | past | | a golden crown | | body's head | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crown=Patient | | 4 | **spring** | past | the light | | | | | | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from which=Trajectory | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/34/21/) - next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/34/23/) - ↑ back to [The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/34/)