---
title: The prince was already at the door, but they knew nothing of it; peo… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: The prince was already at the door, but they knew nothing of it; people don't see far beyond the threshold. Who acts: prince, princes, people. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/146/54/)

<!-- 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/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / [The Porter's Son, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/146/) / 54

# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The prince was already at the door, but they knew nothing of it; people don't see far beyond the threshold.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** prince, princes, people · **What happens:** be, know, not see · **To what, where:** door, nothing

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Porter's Son, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, princes, people), 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:pg27200:146:54
# text = The prince was already at the door, but they knew nothing of it; people don't see far beyond the threshold.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	already	already	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
20	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
21	beyond	beyond	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the prince |  |  | the door |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | past | princes *= prince* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **not** **see** | present · do-support | people |  |  |  |  | beyond the threshold; far *property* | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (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 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/146/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/146/55/)
- ↑ back to [The Porter's Son, part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/146/)