---
title: Helena was comforted and lay down, and before you would have believe… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Helena was comforted and lay down, and before you would have believed it possible the Fairy roused her gently and told her the pond was empty. Who acts: Fairy, pond. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 130

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Helena was comforted and lay down, and before you would have believed it possible the Fairy roused her gently and told her the pond was empty.

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**Who acts:** Fairy, pond · **What happens:** comfort, lay down, believe, rouse, tell, be · **To what, where:** Helena, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Fairy, pond), 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:pg7277:28:130
# text = Helena was comforted and lay down, and before you would have believed it possible the Fairy roused her gently and told her the pond was empty.
1	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux:pass	_	_
3	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	believed	believe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	roused	rouse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	empty	empty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **comfort** | past · passive |  | Helena |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **lay down** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **believe** | would · perfect · passive |  | you |  |  |  | possible *property* | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **rouse** | past | the Fairy |  |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn stimulate-59.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the Fairy *not said here* |  | HELENA |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 6 | **is** | past | the pond |  |  |  |  | empty *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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