---
title: He was about to enter the golden gates, when there sprang at him a w… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was about to enter the golden gates, when there sprang at him a wondrous beast, whose like he had never seen. Who acts: city. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 32

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He was about to enter the golden gates, when there sprang at him a wondrous beast, whose like he had never seen.

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**Who acts:** city · **What happens:** be, enter, spring, not see · **To what, where:** golden gates, wondrous beast

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (city), 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:pg2435:19:32
# text = He was about to enter the golden gates, when there sprang at him a wondrous beast, whose like he had never seen.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	enter	enter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
11	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	12	expl	_	_
12	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	wondrous	wondrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	24	nmod:poss	_	_
20	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | city |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **enter** | to-infinitive | city *not said here* | the golden gates |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme gate=Destination |
| 3 | **spring** | past | city *not said here* | a wondrous beast |  | there |  | at city | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location beast=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **see** | past · perfect | city |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: 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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