---
title: Smearing his face with dirt, and tearing his clothes so as to look l… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Smearing his face with dirt, and tearing his clothes so as to look like a beggar, he stopped the passers by and, on pretence of seeking money or food, he questioned them about the village gossip. Who acts: man, pretence. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with it
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 62

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Smearing his face with dirt, and tearing his clothes so as to look like a beggar, he stopped the passers by and, on pretence of seeking money or food, he questioned them about the village gossip.

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**Who acts:** man, pretence · **What happens:** smear, tear, look, stop, seek, question · **To what, where:** face, clothes, passers, money

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, pretence), 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:pg3027:20:62
# text = Smearing his face with dirt, and tearing his clothes so as to look like a beggar, he stopped the passers by and, on pretence of seeking money or food, he questioned them about the village gossip.
1	Smearing	smear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	dirt	dirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	tearing	tear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	1	conj	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	8	obj	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
15	like	like	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	beggar	beggar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	passers	passer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	pretence	pretence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
28	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
30	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
34	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	questioned	question	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	_
37	about	about	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	gossip	gossip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smear** | gerund | man *not said here* | man's face |  |  |  | with dirt | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent face=Destination with dirt=Theme |
| 2 | **tear** | gerund | man *not said here* | man's clothes |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial\_Location clothes=Theme |
| 3 | **look** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a beggar | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **stop** | past | man | the passers |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector passer=Eventuality |
| 5 | **seek** | gerund | pretence *not said here* | money or food |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme |
| 6 | **question** *speech: other* | past | pretence | passers *= passer* |  |  |  | about the village gossip | vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Recipient about gossip=Topic |

<!-- .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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