---
title: The most splendid of these was guarded by three slaves, whose greedy… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The most splendid of these was guarded by three slaves, whose greedy eyes were caught by the glistening gold of the slippers. Who acts: three slaves. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The most splendid of these was guarded by three slaves, whose greedy eyes were caught by the glistening gold of the slippers.

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**Who acts:** three slaves · **What happens:** guard, catch, glisten · **To what, where:** these, greedy eyes

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (three slaves), 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:pg641:39:85
# text = The most splendid of these was guarded by three slaves, whose greedy eyes were caught by the glistening gold of the slippers.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	3	advmod	_	_
3	splendid	splendid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	guarded	guard	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	glistening	glisten	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	amod	_	_
20	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	slippers	slipper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guard** | past · passive | three slaves | these |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **catch** | past · passive |  | greedy eyes |  |  |  | by the glistening gold of the slippers | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **glisten** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=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 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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