---
title: He knocked bravely at the door, which opened, and by the light which… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He knocked bravely at the door, which opened, and by the light which shone from within he saw an old gray-haired man dressed in a coat made of bright-coloured patches. Who acts: tailor, door, light. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crystal Coffin, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Crystal Coffin, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He knocked bravely at the door, which opened, and by the light which shone from within he saw an old gray-haired man dressed in a coat made of bright-coloured patches.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tailor, door, light · **What happens:** knock, open, shine, see, dress, make · **To what, where:** old gray haired man, coat

<!-- .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, door, light), 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:pg7277:45:9
# text = He knocked bravely at the door, which opened, and by the light which shone from within he saw an old gray-haired man dressed in a coat made of bright-coloured patches.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knocked	knock	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	bravely	bravely	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	shone	shine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	obl	_	_
18	within	within	ADP	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
23	gray	gray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	haired	haired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
27	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	30	acl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	coloured	coloured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	patches	patch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | tailor |  |  |  |  | by the light; at the door; bravely *property* | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at door=Patient |
| 2 | **open** | past | the door |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **shine** | past | the light |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | tailor | a old gray haired man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 5 | **dress** | participle |  | a old gray haired man *not said here* |  | a coat |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **make** | participle |  | a coat *not said here* |  |  |  | of coloured patches | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

<!-- .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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