---
title: This was hardly done when he heard steps coming along the floor, so… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This was hardly done when he heard steps coming along the floor, so he hid himself quickly in the folds of a curtain. Who acts: Halfman, steps. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 28

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This was hardly done when he heard steps coming along the floor, so he hid himself quickly in the folds of a curtain.

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**Who acts:** Halfman, steps · **What happens:** do, hear, come, hide · **To what, where:** This, steps, floor, Halfman, folds

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Halfman, steps), 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:pg641:41:28
# text = This was hardly done when he heard steps coming along the floor, so he hid himself quickly in the folds of a curtain.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
8	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
9	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	along	along	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	floor	floor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	folds	fold	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	curtain	curtain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past · passive |  | This |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **hear** | past | Halfman | steps |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer step=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | gerund | steps *not said here* |  |  | the floor |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme along floor=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **hide** | past | Halfman | Halfman |  | the folds of a curtain |  | quickly *property* | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in fold=Location |

<!-- .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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