---
title: They knocked and called, but nothing stirred within but the house ca… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They knocked and called, but nothing stirred within but the house cat, and at last the blacksmith had to be fetched to open the door. Who acts: pockets, last blacksmith. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 68

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They knocked and called, but nothing stirred within but the house cat, and at last the blacksmith had to be fetched to open the door.

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**Who acts:** pockets, last blacksmith · **What happens:** knock, call, stir, have, fetch, open · **To what, where:** door · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pockets, last blacksmith), 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:pg2435:16:68
# text = They knocked and called, but nothing stirred within but the house cat, and at last the blacksmith had to be fetched to open the door.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	parataxis	_	_
8	stirred	stir	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	within	within	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	blacksmith	blacksmith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux:pass	_	_
23	fetched	fetch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	xcomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | pockets *= pocket* |  |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **call** | past | pockets *= pocket* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stir** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | within the house cat | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **have** | past | the last blacksmith |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fetch** | to-infinitive · passive | the last blacksmith *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **open** | to-infinitive | the last blacksmith *not said here* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |

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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:** «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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