---
title: It was all but dark when they got back to the King at nightfall, and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was all but dark when they got back to the King at nightfall, and he himself was standing in the courtyard waiting for them. Who acts: back, foals, Cinderlad. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Seven Foals, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Seven Foals, sentence 102

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It was all but dark when they got back to the King at nightfall, and he himself was standing in the courtyard waiting for them.

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**Who acts:** back, foals, Cinderlad · **What happens:** be, get back, stand, wait · **To what, where:** nightfall, courtyard

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Seven Foals. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (back, foals, Cinderlad), 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:pg540:49:102
# text = It was all but dark when they got back to the King at nightfall, and he himself was standing in the courtyard waiting for them.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
4	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	nightfall	nightfall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	17	nmod:unmarked	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	waiting	wait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | back |  |  |  |  | all, dark *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **get back** | past | foals *= foal* |  |  | nightfall |  | to the King *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to king=Result |
| 3 | **stand** | past · progressive | Cinderlad |  |  | the courtyard |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in courtyard=Location |
| 4 | **wait** | gerund | Cinderlad *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for foals *= foal* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 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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