---
title: In the middle of the hall stood a round table covered with a variety… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the hall stood a round table covered with a variety of dishes, and about the table was a divan on which eight men were seated. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 158

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the middle of the hall stood a round table covered with a variety of dishes, and about the table was a divan on which eight men were seated.

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**What happens:** stand, cover, be, seat · **To what, where:** round table, middle, divan, eight men

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg7277:7:158
# text = In the middle of the hall stood a round table covered with a variety of dishes, and about the table was a divan on which eight men were seated.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hall	hall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	round	round	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	variety	variety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	divan	divan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obl	_	_
27	eight	eight	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	seated	seat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stand** | past |  | a round table |  | the middle of the hall |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent table=Theme in middle=Destination |
| 2 | **cover** | participle |  | a round table *not said here* |  |  |  | with a variety of dishes | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with variety=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | a divan |  |  |  | about the table | tree rules |
| 4 | **seat** | past · passive |  | eight men |  | a divan |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: subject=Value |

<!-- .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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