---
title: He had hardly finished speaking when one of the cedar trees opened,… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly finished speaking when one of the cedar trees opened, and a veiled figure all dressed in white stepped from it. Who acts: king, one. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hardly finished speaking when one of the cedar trees opened, and a veiled figure all dressed in white stepped from it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, one · **What happens:** finish, speak, open, veil, dress, step · **To what, where:** veiled figure, white, figure · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, one), 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:pg2435:35:65
# text = He had hardly finished speaking when one of the cedar trees opened, and a veiled figure all dressed in white stepped from it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nsubj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	cedar	cedar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
12	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	veiled	veil	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	all	all	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl	_	_
22	stepped	step	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect | king |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **open** | past | one of the cedar trees |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **veil** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **dress** | participle · passive |  | a veiled figure |  | white |  | all *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **step** | participle |  |  |  | figure |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from it=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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