---
title: He lost no time in opening it, but what was his horror when he found… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He lost no time in opening it, but what was his horror when he found that it contained a man’s hand, which was holding a portrait. Who acts: prince, time, light, hand. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Branch, part 1, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He lost no time in opening it, but what was his horror when he found that it contained a man’s hand, which was holding a portrait.

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**Who acts:** prince, time, light, hand · **What happens:** lose, open, be, find, contain, hold · **To what, where:** light, horror, hand, portrait · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (prince, time, light, hand), 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:pg540:34:57
# text = He lost no time in opening it, but what was his horror when he found that it contained a man’s hand, which was holding a portrait.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	opening	open	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	contained	contain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	portrait	portrait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | past | prince |  |  |  | time |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **open** | gerund | no time *not said here* | light |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | prince's horror |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **find** | past | prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **contain** | past | light | a man's hand |  |  |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot hand=Theme |
| 6 | **hold** | past · progressive | a man's hand | a portrait |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent portrait=Theme |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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