---
title: In front of him was a cave, and, as no boy ever sees a cave without… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In front of him was a cave, and, as no boy ever sees a cave without entering it, he went in. Who acts: boy, cave. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 5

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In front of him was a cave, and, as no boy ever sees a cave without entering it, he went in.

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**Who acts:** boy, cave · **What happens:** be, see, enter, go in · **To what, where:** cave, front

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, cave), 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:pg641:43:5
# text = In front of him was a cave, and, as no boy ever sees a cave without entering it, he went in.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nmod	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	15	advmod	_	_
15	sees	see	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cave	cave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	entering	enter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
24	in	in	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a cave |  | front of boy |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | present | no boy | a cave |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cave=Stimulus |
| 3 | **enter** | gerund | a cave *not said here* | cave |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Destination |
| 4 | **go in** | past | boy | a cave *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cave=Theme |

<!-- .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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