---
title: In an instant the tower had vanished as if it had never been, and in… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In an instant the tower had vanished as if it had never been, and in its place was the finger of the princess with a ring round it. Who acts: tower. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 3, 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 3, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In an instant the tower had vanished as if it had never been, and in its place was the finger of the princess with a ring round it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tower · **What happens:** vanish, not be, be · **To what, where:** instant, finger, place

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tower), 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:pg641:40:9
# text = In an instant the tower had vanished as if it had never been, and in its place was the finger of the princess with a ring round it.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	round	round	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **vanish** | past · perfect | the tower |  |  | a instant |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **be** | past · perfect | tower |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | the finger |  | tower's place |  | of the princess with a ring round tower | 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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