---
title: Thus it happened that one evening a stranger rode up to the castle a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Thus it happened that one evening a stranger rode up to the castle and asked for hospitality, as he could not reach the nearest town that night. Who acts: it, stranger. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Crystal Coffin, sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Thus it happened that one evening a stranger rode up to the castle and asked for hospitality, as he could not reach the nearest town that night.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, stranger · **What happens:** happen, ride up, ask, not reach · **To what, where:** castle, nearest town · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (it, stranger), 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:pg7277:45:54
# text = Thus it happened that one evening a stranger rode up to the castle and asked for hospitality, as he could not reach the nearest town that night.
1	Thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	hospitality	hospitality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	28	det	_	_
28	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | it |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **ride up** | past | a stranger |  |  | the castle | evening |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent to castle=Trajectory |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past |  |  |  |  |  | for hospitality | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **reach** | could | stranger | the nearest town |  |  | night |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent town=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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