---
title: While everybody was laughing, Alexander ran up to Bu-ceph-a-lus, and… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: While everybody was laughing, Alexander ran up to Bu-ceph-a-lus, and turned his head toward the sun. He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow. Who acts: everybody, Alexander, Bu, horse. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Alexander and Bucephalus., with it
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Alexander and Bucephalus., sentence 12

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While everybody was laughing, Alexander ran up to Bu-ceph-a-lus, and turned his head toward the sun. He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow.

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**Who acts:** everybody, Alexander, Bu, horse · **What happens:** laugh, run up, turn, notice, be, shadow · **To what, where:** head, sun.

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Alexander and Bucephalus.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (everybody, Alexander, Bu, horse), 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:pg18442:37:12
# text = While everybody was laughing, Alexander ran up to Bu-ceph-a-lus, and turned his head toward the sun. He had noticed that the horse was afraid of his own shadow.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	Alexander	Alexander	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
10	Bu	Bu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	ceph	ceph	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	lus	lus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	toward	toward	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
25	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	noticed	notice	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	advcl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
35	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past · progressive | everybody |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **run up** | past | Alexander |  |  |  |  | to a lus *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to lus=Result |
| 3 | **turn** | past | Alexander *not said here* | ceph's head |  | the sun. |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent head=Theme toward sun.=Trajectory |
| 4 | **notice** | past · perfect | Bu | the sun. *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sun.=Stimulus |
| 5 | **is** | past | the horse |  |  |  |  | of horse's own shadow; afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **shadow** |  | horse |  |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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