---
title: You would have thought invisible spirits were at work, for in next t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: You would have thought invisible spirits were at work, for in next to no time the table and benches were covered with green cloth, the chairs with velvet, and elegant silk curtains hung before the windows. Who acts: You, invisible spirits, time, elegant silk curtains. A sentence of «The Green Fairy 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You would have thought invisible spirits were at work, for in next to no time the table and benches were covered with green cloth, the chairs with velvet, and elegant silk curtains hung before the windows.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** You, invisible spirits, time, elegant silk curtains · **What happens:** think, be, cover, hang · **To what, where:** chairs, work, table, windows · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, invisible spirits, time, elegant silk curtains), 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:pg7277:44:40
# text = You would have thought invisible spirits were at work, for in next to no time the table and benches were covered with green cloth, the chairs with velvet, and elegant silk curtains hung before the windows.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	aux	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	invisible	invisible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	next	next	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	16	det	_	_
16	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	benches	bench	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	chairs	chair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	elegant	elegant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
34	silk	silk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	curtains	curtain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	nsubj	_	_
36	hung	hang	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
37	before	before	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	windows	window	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | would · perfect | You | the chairs with velvet |  |  |  | next *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | invisible spirits |  |  | work |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cover** | past · passive | no time *not said here* | the table and benches |  |  |  | with green cloth | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with cloth=Theme |
| 4 | **hang** | participle | elegant silk curtains |  |  | the windows |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before window=Location |

<!-- .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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