---
title: They, too, had become almost like trees, and were growing to the dec… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They, too, had become almost like trees, and were growing to the deck, or to the masts, or to the sides of the vessel, or to whatever they had happened to be touching when the enchantment fell upon them. Who acts: branches, whatever, enchantment. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 1, sentence 66

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They, too, had become almost like trees, and were growing to the deck, or to the masts, or to the sides of the vessel, or to whatever they had happened to be touching when the enchantment fell upon them.

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**Who acts:** branches, whatever, enchantment · **What happens:** become, grow, happen, touch, fall

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (branches, whatever, enchantment), 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:pg7277:14:66
# text = They, too, had become almost like trees, and were growing to the deck, or to the masts, or to the sides of the vessel, or to whatever they had happened to be touching when the enchantment fell upon them.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	deck	deck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	masts	mast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	36	nsubj	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	aux	_	_
39	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	36	advcl	_	_
40	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	43	advmod	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	enchantment	enchantment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nsubj	_	_
43	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	advcl	_	_
44	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past · perfect | branches *= branch* |  |  |  |  | like trees | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **grow** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | to the deck; to the masts; to the sides of the vessel | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect | whatever |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **touch** | to-infinitive · progressive | whatever *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | past | the enchantment |  |  |  |  | upon branches *= branch* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon they=Location |

<!-- .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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