---
title: No sooner was the water in the kettle getting warm than a strange th… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner was the water in the kettle getting warm than a strange thing happened, and the man, who was standing by, thought he must be dreaming. Who acts: kettle, strange thing, man, water. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 38, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 38, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No sooner was the water in the kettle getting warm than a strange thing happened, and the man, who was standing by, thought he must be dreaming.

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**Who acts:** kettle, strange thing, man, water · **What happens:** be, get, happen, stand by, think, dream · **To what, where:** water, kettle · **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 38. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (kettle, strange thing, man, water), 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:pg2435:38:109
# text = No sooner was the water in the kettle getting warm than a strange thing happened, and the man, who was standing by, thought he must be dreaming.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	kettle	kettle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	getting	get	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	warm	warm	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	acl	_	_
24	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
26	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux	_	_
30	dreaming	dream	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | no water and the man |  | the kettle |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | gerund | the kettle *not said here* |  |  |  |  | warm *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **happen** | past | a strange thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **stand by** | past · progressive | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | no water and the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **dream** | must · progressive | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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