---
title: It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instea… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instead of entering, he went down to the shore and hid behind a rock. Who acts: matter, prince. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 13, sentence 26

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It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instead of entering, he went down to the shore and hid behind a rock.

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**Who acts:** matter, prince · **What happens:** be, return, enter, go down, hide · **To what, where:** midnight, palace, rock

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (matter, prince), 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:pg3027:13:26
# text = It was nearly midnight before he returned to the palace, but, instead of entering, he went down to the shore and hid behind a rock.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	16	mark	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	entering	enter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	down	down	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | matter | midnight |  |  |  | nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **return** | past | prince | midnight *not said here* |  | the palace |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent midnight=Theme to palace=Destination |
| 3 | **enter** | gerund | prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **go down** | past | prince |  |  |  |  | to the shore; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **hide** | past | prince *not said here* |  |  | a rock |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind rock=Location |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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