---
title: By this time Vivien’s active impatience had subsided into passive we… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: By this time Vivien’s active impatience had subsided into passive weariness, his yawns were continual and scandalous, but nobody heeded him, he stared hopelessly at the thick black curtain which hung down straight in front of him, and could hardly believe his eyes when it presently began to slide ba
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By this time Vivien’s active impatience had subsided into passive weariness, his yawns were continual and scandalous, but nobody heeded him, he stared hopelessly at the thick black curtain which hung down straight in front of him, and could hardly believe his eyes when it presently began to slide back, and he saw before him the Black Bird.

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**Who acts:** yawns, nobody, Vivien, thick black curtain, impatience · **What happens:** subside, be, heed, stare, hang down, believe · **To what, where:** active impatience, passive weariness, Vivien, front, eyes, Black Bird

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (yawns, nobody, Vivien, thick black curtain), 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:pg7277:37:4
# text = By this time Vivien’s active impatience had subsided into passive weariness, his yawns were continual and scandalous, but nobody heeded him, he stared hopelessly at the thick black curtain which hung down straight in front of him, and could hardly believe his eyes when it presently began to slide back, and he saw before him the Black Bird.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	Vivien	Vivien	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	active	active	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	impatience	impatience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	subsided	subside	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	passive	passive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	weariness	weariness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	yawns	yawn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	continual	continual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	scandalous	scandalous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	nsubj	_	_
23	heeded	heed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	stared	stare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
28	hopelessly	hopelessly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
31	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
32	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
35	hung	hang	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	acl:relcl	_	_
36	down	down	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
44	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
45	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
46	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
49	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	52	advmod	_	_
50	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
51	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
52	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	46	advcl	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	slide	slide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	xcomp	_	_
55	back	back	ADV	RB	_	54	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
58	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	nsubj	_	_
59	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
60	before	before	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	59	obl	_	_
62	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
63	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	64	compound	_	_
64	Bird	Bird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	59	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **subside** | past · perfect · passive |  | Vivien's active impatience |  | passive weariness | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | Vivien's yawns |  |  |  |  | continual *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | Vivien's yawns *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **heed** | past | nobody | Vivien |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 5 | **stare** | past | Vivien |  |  |  |  | at the thick black curtain; hopelessly *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at curtain=Theme |
| 6 | **hang down** | past | the thick black curtain |  |  | front of Vivien |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location |
| 7 | **believe** | could |  | Vivien's eyes |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 8 | **begin** | past | impatience |  |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 9 | **slide back** | to-infinitive | impatience *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **see** | past | Vivien | the Black Bird |  |  | before him *= he* |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus |
| 11 | **yawn** |  | Vivien |  |  |  |  |  | nom yawn «act intransitive»: poss=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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