---
title: Scarcely had he finished speaking when the sky grew black, the thund… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Scarcely had he finished speaking when the sky grew black, the thunder growled, and the lightning flashed, and in the blaze of light the good Fairy Genesta suddenly appeared. Who acts: Scarcely, sky, thunder, lightning. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 4, with 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 4, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Scarcely had he finished speaking when the sky grew black, the thunder growled, and the lightning flashed, and in the blaze of light the good Fairy Genesta suddenly appeared.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Scarcely, sky, thunder, lightning, good Fairy, light · **What happens:** have, finish, speak, grow, growl, flash · **To what, where:** blaze · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, sky, thunder, lightning), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg7277:17:59
# text = Scarcely had he finished speaking when the sky grew black, the thunder growled, and the lightning flashed, and in the blaze of light the good Fairy Genesta suddenly appeared.
1	Scarcely	Scarcely	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	finished	finish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	xcomp	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sky	sky	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
10	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thunder	thunder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	growled	growl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lightning	lightning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	flashed	flash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	blaze	blaze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	Fairy	Fairy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	Genesta	Genesta	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	flat	_	_
31	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **finish** | past | Scarcely |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | Scarcely *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **grow** | past | the sky |  |  |  |  | black *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **growl** | past | the thunder |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **flash** | past | the lightning |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **appear** | past | the good Fairy |  |  | the blaze of light |  | suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in blaze=Location |
| 8 | **blaze** |  | light |  |  |  |  |  | nom blaze «process intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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