---
title: Thereupon they bent their steps towards the sea, which stretched out… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thereupon they bent their steps towards the sea, which stretched out before them, as far as their eyes could see, all the waves dancing and glittering in the bright sunshine. Who acts: princes, eyes, waves. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thereupon they bent their steps towards the sea, which stretched out before them, as far as their eyes could see, all the waves dancing and glittering in the bright sunshine.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** princes, eyes, waves · **What happens:** bend, stretch out, see, dance, glitter, step · **To what, where:** steps, waves, bright sunshine

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (princes, eyes, waves), 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:pg7277:52:58
# text = Thereupon they bent their steps towards the sea, which stretched out before them, as far as their eyes could see, all the waves dancing and glittering in the bright sunshine.
1	Thereupon	thereupon	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
12	out	out	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	before	before	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	as	as	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	26	det:predet	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
27	dancing	dance	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	glittering	glitter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	conj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend** | past | princes *= prince* | princes's steps |  |  |  | towards the sea; thereupon *property* | vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent step=Material |
| 2 | **stretch out** | past |  |  |  |  | before princes *= prince* |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **see** | could | princes's eyes | all waves |  |  |  | far *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **dance** | gerund | all waves *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **glitter** | gerund | all waves *not said here* |  |  | the bright sunshine |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sunshine=Location |
| 6 | **step** |  | princes *= prince* |  |  |  |  |  | nom step «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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