---
title: He had hardly spoken these words when the lid of the box fell back o… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly spoken these words when the lid of the box fell back on the floor with a terrible noise, and to their horror out sprang the Yellow Dwarf, mounted upon a great Spanish cat. Who acts: King, lid. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 2, with its depend
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Yellow Dwarf, part 2, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hardly spoken these words when the lid of the box fell back on the floor with a terrible noise, and to their horror out sprang the Yellow Dwarf, mounted upon a great Spanish cat.

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**Who acts:** King, lid · **What happens:** speak, fall back, spring, mount · **To what, where:** words, floor, Yellow Dwarf · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Yellow Dwarf, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, lid), 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:pg503:6:43
# text = He had hardly spoken these words when the lid of the box fell back on the floor with a terrible noise, and to their horror out sprang the Yellow Dwarf, mounted upon a great Spanish cat.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lid	lid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
14	back	back	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
27	out	out	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	sprang	spring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	Yellow	yellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	Dwarf	Dwarf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	mounted	mount	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl	_	_
34	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
37	Spanish	Spanish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · perfect | King | this words |  |  |  | hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fall back** | past | the lid of the box |  |  | the floor |  | with a terrible noise | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on floor=Location |
| 3 | **spring** | past |  | the Yellow Dwarf |  |  |  | to lions's horror; out *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location dwarf=Theme |
| 4 | **mount** | participle |  | the Yellow Dwarf *not said here* |  |  |  | upon a great Spanish cat | vn put-9.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent upon cat=Destination |

<!-- .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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