---
title: Nothing happened, so he hit again and then again until, presently, h… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nothing happened, so he hit again and then again until, presently, he heard a tired, far-away voice saying: 'Who is it that scratches my feet?' Who acts: Nothing, Makoma. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 2, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing happened, so he hit again and then again until, presently, he heard a tired, far-away voice saying: 'Who is it that scratches my feet?'

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**Who acts:** Nothing, Makoma · **What happens:** happen, hit, hear, say, be · **To what, where:** tired · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, Makoma), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:2:21
# text = Nothing happened, so he hit again and then again until, presently, he heard a tired, far-away voice saying: 'Who is it that scratches my feet?'
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	2	nsubj	_	_
2	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
7	again	again	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	again	again	ADV	RB	_	7	conj	_	_
11	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	presently	presently	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	away	away	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
28	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	scratches	scratch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
32	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | past | Nothing |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **hit** | past | Makoma |  |  |  | again |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hear** | past | Makoma | a tired |  |  |  | presently *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer tired=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Makoma *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | scratch *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 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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