---
title: He had hardly said the words when a thick fog wrapped itself around… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hardly said the words when a thick fog wrapped itself around him, and so thick was it that he could not see his own hand, or hear the sound of his voice. Who acts: Petru, thick fog. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hardly said the words when a thick fog wrapped itself around him, and so thick was it that he could not see his own hand, or hear the sound of his voice.

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**Who acts:** Petru, thick fog · **What happens:** say, wrap, be, not see, hear · **To what, where:** words, fog, own hand, sound · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, 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 (Petru, thick fog), 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:pg641:20:48
# text = He had hardly said the words when a thick fog wrapped itself around him, and so thick was it that he could not see his own hand, or hear the sound of his voice.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	fog	fog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	around	around	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | Petru | the words |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 2 | **wrap** | past | a thick fog | fog |  |  |  | around Petru | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent itself=Theme around he=Destination |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | fog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **see** | could | Petru | Petru's own hand |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hand=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hear** | infinitive | Petru *not said here* | the sound of Petru's voice |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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