--- title: This was on Christmas Eve. They went up above the cave, and found a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: This was on Christmas Eve. They went up above the cave, and found a window in it, through which they looked, and saw four trolls lying asleep beside the fire, over which a large porridge-pot was hanging. Who acts: This, cliffs, four trolls, large porridge pot. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» b --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/42/107/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / [Prince Ring (30)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/42/) / 107 # The Yellow Fairy Book, Prince Ring (30), sentence 107 This was on Christmas Eve. They went up above the cave, and found a window in it, through which they looked, and saw four trolls lying asleep beside the fire, over which a large porridge-pot was hanging. **Who acts:** This, cliffs, four trolls, large porridge pot · **What happens:** be, go up, find, look, see, lie · **To what, where:** Christmas Eve., cave, window, four trolls, fire This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, cliffs, four trolls, large porridge pot), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg640:42:107 # text = This was on Christmas Eve. They went up above the cave, and found a window in it, through which they looked, and saw four trolls lying asleep beside the fire, over which a large porridge-pot was hanging. 1 This this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 5 nsubj _ _ 2 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 3 on on ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 4 Christmas Christmas PROPN NNP Number=Sing 5 compound _ _ 5 Eve. Eve. PROPN NNP Number=Sing 7 obl _ _ 6 They they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 7 nsubj _ _ 7 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 8 up up ADP RP _ 7 compound:prt _ _ 9 above above ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 11 det _ _ 11 cave cave NOUN NN Number=Sing 7 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 12 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 14 found find VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 parataxis _ _ 15 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 16 det _ _ 16 window window NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 17 in in ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 19 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 20 through through ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 21 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 23 obl _ _ 22 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 23 looked look VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 14 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 24 , , PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 25 and and CCONJ CC _ 26 cc _ _ 26 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 7 conj _ _ 27 four four NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 28 nummod _ _ 28 trolls troll NOUN NNS Number=Plur 26 obj _ _ 29 lying lie VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 28 acl _ _ 30 asleep asleep ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 xcomp _ _ 31 beside beside ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 fire fire NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 43 punct _ _ 35 over over ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 36 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 43 obl _ _ 37 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 38 large large ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 41 amod _ _ 39 porridge porridge NOUN NN Number=Sing 41 compound _ SpaceAfter=No 40 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 39 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 41 pot pot NOUN NN Number=Sing 43 nsubj _ _ 42 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 43 aux _ _ 43 hanging hang VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 26 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 44 . . PUNCT . _ 7 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | This | | | Christmas Eve. | | | tree rules | | 2 | **go up** | past | cliffs *= cliff* | | | the cave | | | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | | 3 | **find** | past | | a window | | cave | | | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent window=Topic | | 4 | **look** | past | cliffs *= cliff* | | | | | | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent through which=Theme | | 5 | **see** | past | cliffs *= cliff* *not said here* | four trolls | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer troll=Stimulus | | 6 | **lie** | gerund | four trolls *not said here* | | | the fire | | asleep *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside fire=Location | | 7 | **hang** | past · progressive | a large porridge pot | | | | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over which=Location | 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. **Text:** «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/42/106/) - next →: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/42/108/) - ↑ back to [Prince Ring (30)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/42/)