---
title: While watching these changes, the maiden was startled by the sound o… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: While watching these changes, the maiden was startled by the sound of an uncouth voice, which seemed to issue from below the self-bored stone, close beside her. Who acts: sound. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 15

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While watching these changes, the maiden was startled by the sound of an uncouth voice, which seemed to issue from below the self-bored stone, close beside her.

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**Who acts:** sound · **What happens:** watch, startle, seem · **To what, where:** changes, maiden, issue

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sound), 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:pg14241:31:15
# text = While watching these changes, the maiden was startled by the sound of an uncouth voice, which seemed to issue from below the self-bored stone, close beside her.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	changes	change	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	maiden	maiden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	uncouth	uncouth	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	issue	issue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	xcomp	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
23	below	below	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
25	self	self	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	bored	bored	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
31	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **watch** | gerund | the sound of a uncouth voice *not said here* | this changes |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent change=Theme |
| 2 | **startle** | past · passive | the sound of a uncouth voice | the maiden |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |
| 3 | **seem** | past | the sound of a uncouth voice | issue from the bored stone |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |

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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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