---
title: When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had been the previous evening. Who acts: end, daylight, pipe, getting. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Blue Mountains, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had been the previous evening.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** end, daylight, pipe, getting · **What happens:** get, hear, order, open, be · **To what, where:** pipe, daylight, door

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (end, daylight, pipe, getting), 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:pg640:45:46
# text = When it was getting near midnight he heard them ordering him to open the door, and there were three of them for every one that there had been the previous evening.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	getting	get	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	csubj	_	_
5	near	near	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	ordering	order	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	xcomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
20	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nmod	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
27	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	acl:relcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	previous	previous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past · progressive | end |  |  |  | midnight |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **hear** | past | daylight | pipe |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **order** | gerund | pipe *not said here* |  | daylight |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **open** | to-infinitive | pipe *not said here* | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | getting |  |  |  |  | for every one | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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.

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