---
title: Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man stepped into th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man stepped into the room, not more than three feet high, clothed in a dressing-gown, and with a small wrinkled face, and a grey beard which reached down to the silver buckles of his shoes. Who acts: door, tiny man, grey beard. A sentence of «The Gree
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/55/20/)

<!-- 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 Three Musicians](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/55/) / 20

# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man stepped into the room, not more than three feet high, clothed in a dressing-gown, and with a small wrinkled face, and a grey beard which reached down to the silver buckles of his shoes.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** door, tiny man, grey beard · **What happens:** open, step, clothe, wrinkle, reach down, buckle · **To what, where:** long, room

<!-- .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 (door, tiny man, grey beard), 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:pg7277:55:20
# text = Before long, however, the door opened and a tiny man stepped into the room, not more than three feet high, clothed in a dressing-gown, and with a small wrinkled face, and a grey beard which reached down to the silver buckles of his shoes.
1	Before	before	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	stepped	step	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	into	into	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
19	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	21	advmod	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	clothed	clothe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
28	dressing	dressing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	gown	gown	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
33	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
35	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
36	wrinkled	wrinkle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	37	amod	_	_
37	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
40	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
41	grey	grey	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	amod	_	_
42	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	nsubj	_	_
43	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	44	nsubj	_	_
44	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	42	acl:relcl	_	_
45	down	down	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obl	_	_
49	buckles	buckle	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the door |  |  | long |  | however *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before long=Location |
| 2 | **step** | past | a tiny man |  |  | the room |  | with a small wrinkled face | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into room=Destination |
| 3 | **clothe** | participle | a tiny man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in a dressing gown | vn dress-41.1.1-1-2 «Passive»: agent=Pivot in gown=Theme |
| 4 | **wrinkle** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **reach down** | past | a grey beard |  |  |  |  | to the silver; down *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **buckle** | present | a grey beard |  |  |  |  | of beard's shoes | vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/55/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/55/21/)
- ↑ back to [The Three Musicians](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/55/)