---
title: No sooner had she opened it than with a shudder of horror she tried… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: No sooner had she opened it than with a shudder of horror she tried to throw it down, but found that some mysterious power compelled her to hold it against her will. Who acts: Princess, mysterious power, horror. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, part 2, with its d
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Branch, part 2, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
No sooner had she opened it than with a shudder of horror she tried to throw it down, but found that some mysterious power compelled her to hold it against her will.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Princess, mysterious power, horror · **What happens:** have, open, try, throw down, find, compel · **To what, where:** attention, horror, Princess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Branch, 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 (Princess, mysterious power, horror), 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:pg540:35:46
# text = No sooner had she opened it than with a shudder of horror she tried to throw it down, but found that some mysterious power compelled her to hold it against her will.
1	No	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	2	det	_	_
2	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	3	advmod	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	shudder	shudder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	mysterious	mysterious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	compelled	compel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	against	against	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  | soon *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **open** | past | Princess | attention |  |  |  | than a shudder of horror | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 3 | **try** | past | Princess | horror *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **throw down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Princess *not said here* | attention |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **compel** | past | some mysterious power | Princess |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Patient clause=Result |
| 7 | **hold** | to-infinitive | some mysterious power *not said here* | attention |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 8 | **shudder** |  | horror |  |  |  |  |  | nom shudder «feeling intransitive»: of=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 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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