---
title: One day as he was sitting staring moodily in front of him, he saw a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day as he was sitting staring moodily in front of him, he saw a snake creep out of the corner towards the corpse. Who acts: provision. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Snake-leaves, sentence 24

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One day as he was sitting staring moodily in front of him, he saw a snake creep out of the corner towards the corpse.

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**Who acts:** provision · **What happens:** sit, stare, see · **To what, where:** One day, snake creep, corner

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Snake-leaves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (provision), 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:pg7277:46:24
# text = One day as he was sitting staring moodily in front of him, he saw a snake creep out of the corner towards the corpse.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	staring	stare	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
8	moodily	moodily	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	creep	creep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
23	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	corpse	corpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | provision | One day *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location day=Theme |
| 2 | **stare** | gerund | provision *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in front of provision; moodily *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in front=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | provision | a snake creep |  | the corner towards the corpse | day |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer creep=Stimulus |

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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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