---
title: He stole forth secretly in front, and when the youth was up above, a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He stole forth secretly in front, and when the youth was up above, and had turned round to grasp the bell-rope, he saw, standing opposite the hole of the belfry, a white figure. Who acts: friend, youth. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He stole forth secretly in front, and when the youth was up above, and had turned round to grasp the bell-rope, he saw, standing opposite the hole of the belfry, a white figure.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** friend, youth · **What happens:** steal, be, turn round, grasp, see, stand · **To what, where:** front, bell rope, hole

<!-- .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 (friend, youth), 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:pg503:13:20
# text = He stole forth secretly in front, and when the youth was up above, and had turned round to grasp the bell-rope, he saw, standing opposite the hole of the belfry, a white figure.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	secretly	secretly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	up	up	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	above	above	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
19	round	round	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	grasp	grasp	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
23	bell	bell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
31	opposite	opposite	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	belfry	belfry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	figure	figure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | past | friend |  |  | front |  | forth, secretly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in front=Location |
| 2 | **is** | past | the youth |  |  |  |  | above *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **turn round** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **grasp** | to-infinitive |  | the bell rope |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rope=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** | past | friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **stand** | gerund | friend *not said here* |  |  | the hole of the belfry |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent opposite hole=Location |

<!-- .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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