---
title: The nearer she approached the more miserable it appeared, and at len… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The nearer she approached the more miserable it appeared, and at length she saw a little old woman sitting upon the door-step, who said grimly: Who acts: Princess, it, little old woman, door step. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine, wit
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The nearer she approached the more miserable it appeared, and at length she saw a little old woman sitting upon the door-step, who said grimly:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Princess, it, little old woman, door step · **What happens:** approach, appear, see, sit, say · **To what, where:** miserable, little old woman, length · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Featherhead and the Princess Celandine. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, it, little old woman, door step), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg7277:12:90
# text = The nearer she approached the more miserable it appeared, and at length she saw a little old woman sitting upon the door-step, who said grimly:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	step	step	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	grimly	grimly	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | Princess | the miserable |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent miserable=Theme |
| 2 | **appear** | past | it |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | Princess | a little old woman |  | length |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sit** | gerund | a little old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon the door step | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon step=Location |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the door step |  |  |  |  | grimly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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