---
title: The roof was supported by fine pillars, so large and lofty, that the… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The roof was supported by fine pillars, so large and lofty, that the pillars of a cathedral were as nothing to them. Who acts: fine pillars, pillars. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Childe Rowland, sentence 50

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The roof was supported by fine pillars, so large and lofty, that the pillars of a cathedral were as nothing to them.

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**Who acts:** fine pillars, pillars · **What happens:** support, be · **To what, where:** roof, horses

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Childe Rowland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fine pillars, pillars), 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:pg7439:24:50
# text = The roof was supported by fine pillars, so large and lofty, that the pillars of a cathedral were as nothing to them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	supported	support	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	lofty	lofty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	pillars	pillar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cathedral	cathedral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	10	conj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **support** | past · passive | fine pillars | the roof |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | the pillars of a cathedral |  | horses *= horse* |  |  | as nothing | tree rules |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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