---
title: The sky was as black as ink, it was thundering and lightening, and t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sky was as black as ink, it was thundering and lightening, and the sea was tossing in great waves as high as church towers and mountains, and each had a white crest of foam. Who acts: sky, sea. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with its
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 199

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sky was as black as ink, it was thundering and lightening, and the sea was tossing in great waves as high as church towers and mountains, and each had a white crest of foam.

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**Who acts:** sky, sea · **What happens:** be, thunder, lighten, toss, have · **To what, where:** great waves, white crest

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sky, sea), 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:pg7277:54:199
# text = The sky was as black as ink, it was thundering and lightening, and the sea was tossing in great waves as high as church towers and mountains, and each had a white crest of foam.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	ink	ink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	thundering	thunder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	appos	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	lightening	lighten	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	tossing	toss	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	as	as	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	ccomp	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	church	church	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	towers	tower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	advmod	_	_
33	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	crest	crest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sky |  |  |  |  | as ink; black *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **thunder** | past · progressive | sky |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lighten** | gerund | sky *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **toss** | past · progressive | the sea |  |  | great waves |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent in wave=Destination |
| 5 | **have** | past |  | a white crest of foam |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crest=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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