---
title: Before each frame about a dozen people were sitting, hard at work, a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before each frame about a dozen people were sitting, hard at work, at which terrible sight I fainted away, and as soon as I recovered they began to ask me what I could do. Who acts: dozen people, I, people. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before each frame about a dozen people were sitting, hard at work, at which terrible sight I fainted away, and as soon as I recovered they began to ask me what I could do.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dozen people, I, people · **What happens:** sit, faint away, recover, begin, ask, do · **To what, where:** terrible sight, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 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 (dozen people, I, people), 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:pg7277:38:78
# text = Before each frame about a dozen people were sitting, hard at work, at which terrible sight I fainted away, and as soon as I recovered they began to ask me what I could do.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	3	det	_	_
3	frame	frame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	dozen	dozen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	parataxis	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	fainted	faint	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	away	away	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	as	as	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	recovered	recover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	iobj	_	_
34	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	37	obj	_	_
35	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | dozen people |  |  | terrible sight | before each frame |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before frame=Location |
| 2 | **faint away** | past | I | terrible sight *not said here* |  |  |  | away *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **recover** | past | I |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **begin** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **do** | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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