---
title: When the children saw they were left alone, they began to cry as lou… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the children saw they were left alone, they began to cry as loud as they could. Who acts: children. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 20

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When the children saw they were left alone, they began to cry as loud as they could.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** see, leave, begin, cry · **To what, where:** children · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), 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:pg503:33:20
# text = When the children saw they were left alone, they began to cry as loud as they could.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	ccomp	_	_
8	alone	alone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	cry	cry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	as	as	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the children |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **leave** | past · passive |  | children *= child* |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | loud *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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