---
title: The work was very hard, but the sheep did not grumble, and by-and-by… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The work was very hard, but the sheep did not grumble, and by-and-by was rewarded at seeing the little green heads poking themselves through earth. Who acts: work, sheep, little green heads. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 19, sentence 34

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The work was very hard, but the sheep did not grumble, and by-and-by was rewarded at seeing the little green heads poking themselves through earth.

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**Who acts:** work, sheep, little green heads · **What happens:** be, not grumble, reward, see, poke · **To what, where:** little green heads, sheep

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (work, sheep, little green heads), 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:pg3027:19:34
# text = The work was very hard, but the sheep did not grumble, and by-and-by was rewarded at seeing the little green heads poking themselves through earth.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	very	very	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
10	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	grumble	grumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	rewarded	reward	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
22	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
23	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	green	green	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
28	poking	poke	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
29	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	28	obj	_	_
30	through	through	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the work |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **grumble** *speech: other* | past · do-support | the sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn complain-37.8 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **reward** | past · passive | the work *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient» |
| 4 | **see** | gerund | the work *not said here* | the little green heads |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer head=Stimulus |
| 5 | **poke** | gerund | the little green heads *not said here* | sheep |  |  |  | through earth | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.patient»: agent=Agent themselves=Instrument through earth=Patient |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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