---
title: The fairies heard the knock, but were afraid to open till they had p… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fairies heard the knock, but were afraid to open till they had peeped from an upper window to see that it was no giant or ogre who could do them harm. Who acts: fairies, knock, ogre. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fairies heard the knock, but were afraid to open till they had peeped from an upper window to see that it was no giant or ogre who could do them harm.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fairies, knock, ogre · **What happens:** hear, be, open, peep, see, do · **To what, where:** knock, giant, fairies · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fairies, knock, ogre), 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:pg2435:12:76
# text = The fairies heard the knock, but were afraid to open till they had peeped from an upper window to see that it was no giant or ogre who could do them harm.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	knock	knock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	peeped	peep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	upper	upper	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	giant	giant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	ccomp	_	_
27	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
30	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl:relcl	_	_
32	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	harm	harm	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the fairies | the knock |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer knock=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | the fairies *not said here* |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **open** | to-infinitive | the fairies *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **peep** | past · perfect | fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  |  | from a upper window | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent from window=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | fairies *= fairy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is a** | past | knock | no giant or ogre |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **do** | could | ogre | fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **harm** | infinitive | ogre *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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