---
title: The laird was astonished at the weird-looking company, as he well mi… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The laird was astonished at the weird-looking company, as he well might be, and inquired of one after another the cause of their strange lips. Who acts: laird. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 46

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The laird was astonished at the weird-looking company, as he well might be, and inquired of one after another the cause of their strange lips.

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**Who acts:** laird · **What happens:** be, look, inquire, cause · **To what, where:** looking company, strange lips

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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 (laird), 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:pg14241:31:46
# text = The laird was astonished at the weird-looking company, as he well might be, and inquired of one after another the cause of their strange lips.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	laird	laird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	astonished	astonished	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
7	weird	weird	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	10	amod	_	_
10	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obl	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
28	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the laird |  |  | the looking company |  | astonished *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | might | laird |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  | after another cause of roots's strange lips | of one | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V PP.recipient how S»: agent=Agent of one=Recipient |
| 5 | **cause** |  |  | roots's strange lips |  |  |  |  | nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient |

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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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