---
title: "Ah, ah!" laughed the squire, "whoever heard of a wise man lying in… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Ah, ah!" laughed the squire, "whoever heard of a wise man lying in the middle of the highroad to be ridden over? Who acts: whoever, wise man. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 8, sentence 67

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"Ah, ah!" laughed the squire, "whoever heard of a wise man lying in the middle of the highroad to be ridden over?

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**Who acts:** whoever, wise man · **What happens:** laugh, hear, lie, ride over · **To what, where:** squire, middle · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (whoever, wise man), 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:pg14241:22:67
# text = "Ah, ah!" laughed the squire, "whoever heard of a wise man lying in the middle of the highroad to be ridden over?
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	2	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
7	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	squire	squire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	highroad	highroad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	ridden	ride	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	ccomp	_	_
28	over	over	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past |  | the squire |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent squire=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** *in a quote* | past | whoever |  |  |  |  | of a wise man | tree rules |
| 3 | **lie** *in a quote* | gerund | a wise man *not said here* |  |  | the middle of the highroad |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in middle=Location |
| 4 | **ride over** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  | over *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V» |

<!-- .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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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