---
title: The lights were all out, and so he groped his way to the fire, and t… — Celtic Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The lights were all out, and so he groped his way to the fire, and there the cat flew in his face, and tore him with teeth and claws. Who acts: lights, boy, cat. A sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and His Comrades, sentence 72

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The lights were all out, and so he groped his way to the fire, and there the cat flew in his face, and tore him with teeth and claws.

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**Who acts:** lights, boy, cat · **What happens:** be, grope, fly, tore · **To what, where:** way, face, boy

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This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack and His Comrades. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lights, boy, cat), 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:pg7885:18:72
# text = The lights were all out, and so he groped his way to the fire, and there the cat flew in his face, and tore him with teeth and claws.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	out	out	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	groped	grope	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	21	expl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	tore	tore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	with	with	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the lights |  |  |  |  | all, out *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **grope** | past | boy | boy's way |  |  |  | to the fire | vn touch-20 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Experiencer |
| 3 | **fly** | past | the cat |  |  | boy's face; there |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent in face=Location |
| 4 | **tore** | past |  | boy |  |  |  | with teeth and claws | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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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