---
title: When it grew dark, a little bee flew by, and knocking at the window,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When it grew dark, a little bee flew by, and knocking at the window, it said, ‘Open, and let me in.’ Who acts: head, little bee. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When it grew dark, a little bee flew by, and knocking at the window, it said, ‘Open, and let me in.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** head, little bee · **What happens:** grow, fly by, knock, say, let in · **To what, where:** me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, 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 (head, little bee), 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:pg7277:27:88
# text = When it grew dark, a little bee flew by, and knocking at the window, it said, ‘Open, and let me in.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
4	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	bee	bee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
26	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past | head |  |  |  |  | dark *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **fly by** | past | a little bee |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **knock** | gerund | head *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at the window | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at window=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | head |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **let in** | infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=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 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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