---
title: By midnight he knew he was no longer on his horse, but standing on t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: By midnight he knew he was no longer on his horse, but standing on the ground, though he could not have told how he got there. Who acts: strength. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 77

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By midnight he knew he was no longer on his horse, but standing on the ground, though he could not have told how he got there.

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**Who acts:** strength · **What happens:** know, not be, stand, not tell, get · **To what, where:** ground · **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 (strength), 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:pg641:20:77
# text = By midnight he knew he was no longer on his horse, but standing on the ground, though he could not have told how he got there.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	no	no	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
14	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
24	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	parataxis	_	_
25	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
28	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | strength |  |  |  | midnight |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | strength |  |  |  |  | on strength's horse; long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **stand** | gerund | strength *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 4 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect | strength |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **get** | past | strength |  |  | there |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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