---
title: Sometimes he was in front of the door, and sometimes the door was in… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes he was in front of the door, and sometimes the door was in front of him, and it went from one side of the porch to the other, till the attorney was well-nigh beaten to death. Who acts: attorney, door. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 2, with its dep
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Master-maid, part 2, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sometimes he was in front of the door, and sometimes the door was in front of him, and it went from one side of the porch to the other, till the attorney was well-nigh beaten to death.

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**Who acts:** attorney, door · **What happens:** be, go, beat · **To what, where:** front, one side, attorney, death

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master-maid, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (attorney, door), 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:pg503:18:71
# text = Sometimes he was in front of the door, and sometimes the door was in front of him, and it went from one side of the porch to the other, till the attorney was well-nigh beaten to death.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	porch	porch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
33	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	attorney	attorney	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux:pass	_	_
37	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	40	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	37	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	nigh	nigh	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
41	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | attorney |  |  | front and front |  | of the door; sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the door |  |  | front |  | of attorney; sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | past | door |  |  | one side of the porch |  | to the other | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from side=Initial\_Location to other=Destination |
| 4 | **beat** | past · passive |  | the attorney | death |  |  | nigh, well *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Patient to death=Recipient |

<!-- .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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