---
title: “I’ll surely be able to find a way out,” said he, and groping about… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I’ll surely be able to find a way out,” said he, and groping about he at length found his way back to the room, and fell asleep at his fire. Who acts: way, groping. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 175

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I’ll surely be able to find a way out,” said he, and groping about he at length found his way back to the room, and fell asleep at his fire.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, groping · **What happens:** be, find, say, grope, fall, fire · **To what, where:** way, length, fire · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, groping), 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:pg503:13:175
# text = “I’ll surely be able to find a way out,” said he, and groping about he at length found his way back to the room, and fell asleep at his fire.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’ll	'll	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	out	out	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
18	groping	grope	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	csubj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	back	back	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
33	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	xcomp	_	_
34	at	at	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | present | way |  |  |  |  | able, surely *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **find** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | way *not said here* | a way |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | way |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **grope** | gerund |  |  |  | length |  | about way | vn rummage-35.5-1 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent about he=Location |
| 5 | **find** | past | groping | way's way |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic |
| 6 | **fall** | past | groping *not said here* |  |  | way's fire |  | asleep *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at fire=Location |
| 7 | **fire** |  | way |  |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: poss=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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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