---
title: He opened it quickly, and there upon a white cushion they saw a dog… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He opened it quickly, and there upon a white cushion they saw a dog so small that it could easily have been put through a ring. Who acts: youngest, brothers. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The White Cat, part 1, sentence 82

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He opened it quickly, and there upon a white cushion they saw a dog so small that it could easily have been put through a ring.

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**Who acts:** youngest, brothers · **What happens:** open, see, put · **To what, where:** kingdom, dog, ring

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Cat, 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 (youngest, brothers), 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:pg503:23:82
# text = He opened it quickly, and there upon a white cushion they saw a dog so small that it could easily have been put through a ring.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
7	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	cushion	cushion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
21	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	put	put	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
25	through	through	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | youngest *= young* | kingdom |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | brothers *= brother* | a dog |  | there |  | upon a white cushion; small *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dog=Stimulus |
| 3 | **put** | could · perfect · passive |  | kingdom |  | a ring |  | easily *property* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme through ring=Destination |

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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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