---
title: He was in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under which he had been sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit as yellow as gold. Who acts: John, tree. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Little Soldier, sentence 245

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He was in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under which he had been sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit as yellow as gold.

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**Who acts:** John, tree · **What happens:** be, look up, see, sleep, cover · **To what, where:** despair, tree, superb plum · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Little Soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (John, tree), 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:pg7277:22:245
# text = He was in despair, when suddenly he looked up and saw that the tree under which he had been sleeping was a superb plum, covered with fruit as yellow as gold.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
7	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
16	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obl	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	aux	_	_
21	sleeping	sleep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	acl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	superb	superb	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	plum	plum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
30	as	as	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
32	as	as	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | John |  |  | despair |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look up** | past | John |  |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **sleep** | past · perfect · progressive | John |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | the tree | a superb plum |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **cover** | participle |  | a superb plum *not said here* |  |  |  | with fruit | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with fruit=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 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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