---
title: They believed that witches could turn people into beasts, that beast… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They believed that witches could turn people into beasts, that beasts could speak, that magic rings could make their owners invisible, and all the other wonders in the stories. Who acts: stories, witches, beasts, that. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Green Fairy Book, with i
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They believed that witches could turn people into beasts, that beasts could speak, that magic rings could make their owners invisible, and all the other wonders in the stories.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** stories, witches, beasts, that · **What happens:** believe, turn, speak, make · **To what, where:** other wonders, people, beasts, owners · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Green Fairy Book. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stories, witches, beasts, that), 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:pg7277:1:10
# text = They believed that witches could turn people into beasts, that beasts could speak, that magic rings could make their owners invisible, and all the other wonders in the stories.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	nsubj	_	_
17	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	rings	ring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	owners	owner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	invisible	invisible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	29	det:predet	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	wonders	wonder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | past | stories *= story* | all other wonders in the stories |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **turn** | could | witches | people |  | beasts |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent people=Theme into beast=Trajectory |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | beasts |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **make** | could | that | stories's owners |  |  |  | invisible *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset owner=Product |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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