---
title: The leaves remained lying on the ground, and it suddenly occurred to… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The leaves remained lying on the ground, and it suddenly occurred to the unfortunate man who had seen everything, that the wonderful power of the leaves might also be exercised upon a human being. Who acts: leaves, snake, unfortunate man. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Thre
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/46/29/)

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Snake-leaves, sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The leaves remained lying on the ground, and it suddenly occurred to the unfortunate man who had seen everything, that the wonderful power of the leaves might also be exercised upon a human being.

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**Who acts:** leaves, snake, unfortunate man · **What happens:** remain, lie, occur, see, exercise · **To what, where:** ground, everything, wonderful power

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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 (leaves, snake, unfortunate man), 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:pg7277:46:29
# text = The leaves remained lying on the ground, and it suddenly occurred to the unfortunate man who had seen everything, that the wonderful power of the leaves might also be exercised upon a human being.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	occurred	occur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	leaves	leaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	also	also	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	exercised	exercise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	conj	_	_
33	upon	upon	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	_
36	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **remain** | past | the leaves |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | gerund | the leaves *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 3 | **occur** | past | snake |  |  |  |  | to the unfortunate man; suddenly *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past · perfect | the unfortunate man | everything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer everything=Stimulus |
| 5 | **exercise** | might · passive |  | the wonderful power of the leaves |  |  |  | human *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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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