---
title: But just as he was passing through the door the tip of the sheath to… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But just as he was passing through the door the tip of the sheath touched it, and the door gave a loud shriek. Who acts: servant, door. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/7/83/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 83

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But just as he was passing through the door the tip of the sheath touched it, and the door gave a loud shriek.

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**Who acts:** servant, door · **What happens:** pass, touch, give · **To what, where:** tip, door, loud shriek

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant, door), 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:pg3027:7:83
# text = But just as he was passing through the door the tip of the sheath touched it, and the door gave a loud shriek.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
2	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
7	through	through	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tip	tip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sheath	sheath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	touched	touch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	shriek	shriek	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past · progressive | servant | the tip of the sheath |  | the door |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent tip=Theme through door=Destination |
| 2 | **touch** | past |  | tip |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Co-Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past | the door | a loud shriek |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shriek=Theme |

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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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