---
title: At length he found what he sought, but as it was too late and too da… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he found what he sought, but as it was too late and too dark for him to make sure of success, he curled himself up under a doorway, and slept till morning. Who acts: brother, length. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length he found what he sought, but as it was too late and too dark for him to make sure of success, he curled himself up under a doorway, and slept till morning.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** brother, length · **What happens:** find, seek, be, make, curl up, sleep · **To what, where:** length, brother, doorway · **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 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother, length), 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:pg3454:20:3
# text = At length he found what he sought, but as it was too late and too dark for him to make sure of success, he curled himself up under a doorway, and slept till morning.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	too	too	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	advcl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	too	too	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
18	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
22	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	xcomp	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	success	success	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	curled	curl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
28	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obj	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
30	under	under	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	doorway	doorway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
36	till	till	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | past | brother |  |  | length |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **seek** | past | brother |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | length |  |  |  |  | late *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | length *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **make** | to-infinitive | brother |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **curl up** | past | brother | brother |  | a doorway |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 7 | **sleep** | past | brother *not said here* |  |  |  | morning |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: 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 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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