---
title: This gave them the alarm; they drew their sabres, and went to the do… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This gave them the alarm; they drew their sabres, and went to the door, which opened on their Captain’s saying: “Open, Sesame!” Who acts: This, mules, door, Captain. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 46

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This gave them the alarm; they drew their sabres, and went to the door, which opened on their Captain’s saying: “Open, Sesame!”

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**Who acts:** This, mules, door, Captain · **What happens:** give, draw, go, open, say · **To what, where:** alarm, mules, sabres, saying · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, mules, door, Captain), 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:pg503:34:46
# text = This gave them the alarm; they drew their sabres, and went to the door, which opened on their Captain’s saying: “Open, Sesame!”
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	alarm	alarm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	sabres	sabre	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	Captain	Captain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	saying	saying	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
26	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	Sesame	sesame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | This | the alarm | mules *= mule* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient alarm=Theme |
| 2 | **draw** | past | mules *= mule* | mules's sabres |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sabre=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | mules *= mule* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the door | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **open** | past | the door |  |  | mules's Captain's saying |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on saying=Location |
| 5 | **say** |  | mules's Captain |  |  |  |  |  | nom saying «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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