---
title: At midnight the witch came to the door of the room and called in to… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At midnight the witch came to the door of the room and called in to them, and the two pieces of wood answered her, so that she believed they were there, and went away again. Who acts: witch, two pieces, piece, pot. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26, wit
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 57

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At midnight the witch came to the door of the room and called in to them, and the two pieces of wood answered her, so that she believed they were there, and went away again.

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**Who acts:** witch, two pieces, piece, pot · **What happens:** come, call in, answer, believe, be, go away · **To what, where:** door, pot, witch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (witch, two pieces, piece, pot), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg5615:2643`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg5615:26:57
# text = At midnight the witch came to the door of the room and called in to them, and the two pieces of wood answered her, so that she believed they were there, and went away again.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
21	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	fixed	_	_
29	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	advcl	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
33	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	ccomp	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
36	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
37	away	away	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
38	again	again	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the witch |  |  | the door of the room | midnight |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to door=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **call in** *speech: assert* | past | the witch *not said here* |  | pot |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the two pieces of wood |  | witch |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent she=Eventuality |
| 4 | **believe** | past | piece |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is** | past | pot |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **go away** | past | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  | again | away *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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