---
title: Terrified to death, Helena looked up and saw a Fairy standing in fro… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Terrified to death, Helena looked up and saw a Fairy standing in front of her, who asked in the kindest way possible, ‘Why are you crying, my dear?’ Who acts: Helena, Fairy standing, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 119

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Terrified to death, Helena looked up and saw a Fairy standing in front of her, who asked in the kindest way possible, ‘Why are you crying, my dear?’

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**Who acts:** Helena, Fairy standing, you · **What happens:** look up, see, ask, cry · **To what, where:** Fairy standing, front, kindest way

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, 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 (Helena, Fairy standing, you), 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:pg7277:28:119
# text = Terrified to death, Helena looked up and saw a Fairy standing in front of her, who asked in the kindest way possible, ‘Why are you crying, my dear?’
1	Terrified	terrified	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	case	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	Fairy	fairy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	standing	standing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	kindest	kind	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	23	amod	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
28	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look up** | past | Helena |  |  |  |  | terrified death | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 2 | **see** | past | Helena *not said here* | a Fairy standing |  | front of HELENA |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer standing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a Fairy standing |  |  | the kindest way |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: 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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