---
title: When the emperor was fast asleep, the bed began to crack loudly, and… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the emperor was fast asleep, the bed began to crack loudly, and to the empress each crack had a meaning. Who acts: emperor, asleep bed, crack. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Boys With the Golden Stars, sentence 57

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When the emperor was fast asleep, the bed began to crack loudly, and to the empress each crack had a meaning.

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**Who acts:** emperor, asleep bed, crack · **What happens:** be, begin, crack, have · **To what, where:** meaning

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Boys With the Golden Stars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, asleep bed, crack), 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:pg641:35:57
# text = When the emperor was fast asleep, the bed began to crack loudly, and to the empress each crack had a meaning.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	crack	crack	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	loudly	loudly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	empress	empress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
19	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	det	_	_
20	crack	crack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the emperor |  |  |  |  | asleep, fast *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the asleep bed |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **crack** | to-infinitive | the asleep bed *not said here* |  |  |  |  | loudly *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | each crack | a meaning |  |  |  | to the empress | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient |

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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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