---
title: While she was walking in a profound meditation, she heard a confused… — The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was walking in a profound meditation, she heard a confused noise under her feet, as it were of a great many people who went backwards and forwards, and were very busy. Who acts: noise, meditation, great many people. A sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, H
---

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# The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Had Reserved For Himself"\], sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While she was walking in a profound meditation, she heard a confused noise under her feet, as it were of a great many people who went backwards and forwards, and were very busy.

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**Who acts:** noise, meditation, great many people · **What happens:** walk, hear, be, go · **To what, where:** profound meditation, confused noise, feet

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This is a sentence of «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Had Reserved For Himself"\]. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (noise, meditation, great many people), 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:pg29021:13:12
# text = While she was walking in a profound meditation, she heard a confused noise under her feet, as it were of a great many people who went backwards and forwards, and were very busy.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	profound	profound	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	meditation	meditation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	confused	confused	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
15	under	under	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
24	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	_
29	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	very	very	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past · progressive | noise |  |  | a profound meditation |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in meditation=Trajectory |
| 2 | **hear** | past | noise | a confused noise |  | noise's feet |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer noise=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | past | meditation |  |  |  |  | as a great many people | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | past | a great many people |  |  |  |  | backwards *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | noise *not said here* |  |  |  |  | busy *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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:** «The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault» by Charles Perrault, Project Gutenberg book 29021 (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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