---
title: He knocked at the door, which was opened by a little old woman who a… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He knocked at the door, which was opened by a little old woman who asked, ‘What do you want at this late hour in the midst of this great forest?’ Who acts: stag, little old woman, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Lads, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Lads, sentence 73

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He knocked at the door, which was opened by a little old woman who asked, ‘What do you want at this late hour in the midst of this great forest?’

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**Who acts:** stag, little old woman, you · **What happens:** knock, open, ask, want · **To what, where:** door, midst

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Lads. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stag, little old woman, you), 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:pg7277:49:73
# text = He knocked at the door, which was opened by a little old woman who asked, ‘What do you want at this late hour in the midst of this great forest?’
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	at	at	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	opened	open	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	obj	_	_
20	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
25	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	det	_	_
32	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **knock** | past | stag |  |  | the door |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **open** | past · passive | a little old woman | the door |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location subject=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a little old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **want** | present · do-support | you |  |  | the midst of this great forest | hour |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=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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