---
title: On entering the cave they saw all the bags laid ready, and could not… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On entering the cave they saw all the bags laid ready, and could not imagine how anyone had got in without knowing their secret. Who acts: sabres, bags, anyone. 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 49

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On entering the cave they saw all the bags laid ready, and could not imagine how anyone had got in without knowing their secret.

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**Who acts:** sabres, bags, anyone · **What happens:** enter, see, lay, not imagine, get in, know · **To what, where:** cave, secret · **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 (sabres, bags, anyone), 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:pg503:34:49
# text = On entering the cave they saw all the bags laid ready, and could not imagine how anyone had got in without knowing their secret.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	entering	enter	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
7	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	9	det:predet	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bags	bag	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
11	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	imagine	imagine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
17	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
18	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	ccomp	_	_
21	in	in	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | gerund |  | the cave |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cave=Destination |
| 2 | **see** | past | sabres *= sabre* | the cave *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **lay** | past | all bags |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **imagine** | could | sabres *= sabre* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **get in** | past · perfect | anyone |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **know** | gerund | anyone *not said here* | sabres's secret |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer secret=Stimulus |

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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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