---
title: Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not ea… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters. Who acts: opening. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/51/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/) / 51

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** opening · **What happens:** be, not be, pass in, touch · **To what, where:** one

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (opening), 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:pg503:27:51
# text = Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	expl	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
22	touching	touch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	Gray	Gray	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	amod	_	_
27	Sisters	Sister	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the opening of the cave in the ice |  |  |  | now | narrow *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | the opening of the cave in the ice *not said here* |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **pass in** | to-infinitive | the opening of the cave in the ice *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **touch** | gerund | the opening of the cave in the ice *not said here* | one of the Gray Sisters |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/50/)
- next →: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/52/)
- ↑ back to [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/)