---
title: He stole away to the door, which was ajar, to see what was there, an… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He stole away to the door, which was ajar, to see what was there, and a horse was standing eating. Who acts: horse, door. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Princess on the Glass Hill, sentence 19

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He stole away to the door, which was ajar, to see what was there, and a horse was standing eating.

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**Who acts:** horse, door · **What happens:** steal away, be, see, stand, eat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Princess on the Glass Hill. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horse, door), 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:pg503:48:19
# text = He stole away to the door, which was ajar, to see what was there, and a horse was standing eating.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	away	away	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	ajar	ajar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
23	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal away** | past | horse |  |  |  |  | to the door; away *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the door |  |  |  |  | ajar *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **stand** | past · progressive | a horse |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **eat** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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