---
title: But when it was dark and all was still, the fox crept downstairs and… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when it was dark and all was still, the fox crept downstairs and lit the kitchen fire, and the ogre and his wife were burned to death. Who acts: pair, all, fox. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/) / 11

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when it was dark and all was still, the fox crept downstairs and lit the kitchen fire, and the ogre and his wife were burned to death.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pair, all, fox · **What happens:** be, creep, light, burn · **To what, where:** kitchen fire, ogre

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pair, all, fox), 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:pg2435:26:11
# text = But when it was dark and all was still, the fox crept downstairs and lit the kitchen fire, and the ogre and his wife were burned to death.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	5	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	crept	creep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
14	downstairs	downstairs	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	lit	light	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux:pass	_	_
28	burned	burn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | pair |  |  |  |  | dark *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | all |  |  |  |  | still *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **creep** | past | the fox |  |  |  |  | downstairs *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **light** | past | the fox *not said here* | the kitchen fire |  |  |  |  | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fire=Product |
| 5 | **burn** | past · passive |  | the ogre and fox's wife |  |  |  | to death | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/12/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/)