---
title: Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, The ancient Britons dres… — Just so stories · tree and pragmatics
description: Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, The ancient Britons dressed and rode To watch the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road. Who acts: girls, horse bells, ancient Britons, dark Phoenicians. A sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Writt
---

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# Just so stories, How the First Letter Was Written, sentence 180

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Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, The ancient Britons dressed and rode To watch the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road.

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**Who acts:** girls, horse bells, ancient Britons, dark Phoenicians · **What happens:** hear, ring, dress, ride, watch, bring · **To what, where:** goods

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This is a sentence of «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, How the First Letter Was Written. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, horse bells, ancient Britons, dark Phoenicians), 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:pg2781:9:180
# text = Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, The ancient Britons dressed and rode To watch the dark Phoenicians bring Their goods along the Western Road.
1	Here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	bells	bell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	ring	ring	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	Britons	Briton	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	dressed	dress	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
18	To	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	Phoenicians	Phoenician	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
23	bring	bring	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
24	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	goods	goods	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	23	obj	_	_
26	along	along	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	Western	Western	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	29	compound	_	_
29	Road	Road	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | girls *= girl* |  |  | here |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **ring** | present | the horse bells |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **dress** | past | the ancient Britons |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ride** | past | the ancient Britons *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **watch** | to-infinitive | the ancient Britons *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **bring** | present | the dark Phoenicians | girls's goods |  |  |  | along the Western Road | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent goods=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «Just so stories» by Rudyard Kipling, Project Gutenberg book 2781 (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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