---
title: Before the sun rose he found himself in a thick wood where it was to… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before the sun rose he found himself in a thick wood where it was too dark for him to see his path, and here he heard an owl crying as if it were in despair. Who acts: sun, raven, owl. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before the sun rose he found himself in a thick wood where it was too dark for him to see his path, and here he heard an owl crying as if it were in despair.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sun, raven, owl · **What happens:** rise, find, be, see, hear, cry · **To what, where:** sun, thick wood, path, owl, despair

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sun, raven, owl), 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:pg503:28:58
# text = Before the sun rose he found himself in a thick wood where it was too dark for him to see his path, and here he heard an owl crying as if it were in despair.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
12	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	too	too	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
17	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
28	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	despair	despair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | past | the sun |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **find** | past | sun | sun |  | a thick wood |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | past | raven |  |  |  |  | dark *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive | sun | sun's path |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer path=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hear** | past | sun | a owl |  | here |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer owl=Stimulus |
| 6 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | a owl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | raven |  |  | despair |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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