---
title: Before the fiddler had time to think, he was ushered into a little r… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before the fiddler had time to think, he was ushered into a little room by invisible hands, and there a table was spread for him with all the delicious food he had seen cooking in the kitchen. Who acts: fiddler. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, with its depen
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before the fiddler had time to think, he was ushered into a little room by invisible hands, and there a table was spread for him with all the delicious food he had seen cooking in the kitchen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** fiddler · **What happens:** have, think, usher, spread, see · **To what, where:** fiddler, little room, table, cooking, kitchen

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fiddler), 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:pg7277:55:18
# text = Before the fiddler had time to think, he was ushered into a little room by invisible hands, and there a table was spread for him with all the delicious food he had seen cooking in the kitchen.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fiddler	fiddler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	ushered	usher	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	invisible	invisible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	spread	spread	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
29	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	32	det:predet	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	cooking	cooking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | the fiddler |  |  |  | time |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the fiddler *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **usher** | past · passive |  | fiddler |  | a little room by invisible hands |  |  | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **spread** | past · passive |  | a table |  | there |  | for fiddler; with all delicious food | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: subject=Destination with food=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | past · perfect | fiddler | cooking |  | the kitchen |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cooking=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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