---
title: By this time he had grown so courageous that he did not hesitate to… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: By this time he had grown so courageous that he did not hesitate to obey the order, and hardly had he stepped on the stone than it began to sink gently with him into the depths below. Who acts: tailor, stone. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin, with its dependenc
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/32/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Crystal Coffin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/) / 32

# The Green Fairy Book, The Crystal Coffin, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By this time he had grown so courageous that he did not hesitate to obey the order, and hardly had he stepped on the stone than it began to sink gently with him into the depths below.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, stone · **What happens:** grow, not hesitate, obey, have, step, begin · **To what, where:** order, stone, depths

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailor, stone), 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:pg7277:45:32
# text = By this time he had grown so courageous that he did not hesitate to obey the order, and hardly had he stepped on the stone than it began to sink gently with him into the depths below.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	grown	grow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	courageous	courageous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	hesitate	hesitate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	stepped	step	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	xcomp	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	sink	sink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
35	into	into	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	depths	depth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	_
38	below	below	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow** | past · perfect | tailor |  |  |  | time | courageous *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **hesitate** | past · do-support | tailor |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **obey** | to-infinitive | tailor *not said here* | the order |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent order=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | past | tailor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **step** | participle | tailor |  |  | the stone |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on stone=Trajectory |
| 6 | **begin** | past | stone |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **sink** | to-infinitive | stone *not said here* |  |  | the depths |  | with tailor; gently *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with he=Instrument |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/33/)
- ↑ back to [The Crystal Coffin](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/45/)