---
title: Often he stood for hours motionless as a statue, and if the desire t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Often he stood for hours motionless as a statue, and if the desire to succeed could have helped him he would soon have possessed the Rosy Mole. Who acts: Prince, desire. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 4, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 4, sentence 13

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Often he stood for hours motionless as a statue, and if the desire to succeed could have helped him he would soon have possessed the Rosy Mole.

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**Who acts:** Prince, desire · **What happens:** stand, succeed, help, possess · **To what, where:** Prince

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, desire), 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:pg7277:39:13
# text = Often he stood for hours motionless as a statue, and if the desire to succeed could have helped him he would soon have possessed the Rosy Mole.
1	Often	often	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	hours	hour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	motionless	motionless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	statue	statue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	succeed	succeed	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	acl	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux	_	_
19	helped	help	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
25	possessed	possess	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	Rosy	rosy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	Mole	mole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past | Prince |  |  |  | hour | as a statue; motionless, often *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **succeed** | to-infinitive | the desire *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **help** *a condition, not said to happen* | could · perfect | the desire |  | Prince |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **possess** | would · perfect · passive |  | Prince |  |  |  | soon *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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