---
title: At that time the Editor was not afraid of the dark, for he thought,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At that time the Editor was not afraid of the dark, for he thought, ‘If a ghost is here, we can’t see him.’ Who acts: Editor, ghost, we. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At that time the Editor was not afraid of the dark, for he thought, ‘If a ghost is here, we can’t see him.’

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**Who acts:** Editor, ghost, we · **What happens:** not be, think, be, not see · **To what, where:** Editor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, 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 (Editor, ghost, we), 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:pg3454:1:59
# text = At that time the Editor was not afraid of the dark, for he thought, ‘If a ghost is here, we can’t see him.’
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Editor	Editor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	ghost	ghost	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | the Editor |  |  |  | time | of the dark; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Editor |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a ghost |  |  |  |  | here *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **see** | can | we | Editor |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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