---
title: The girls heard the grating noise, but fancying it was a mouse, paid… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The girls heard the grating noise, but fancying it was a mouse, paid no attention, and Becasigue was left in peace to pursue his work. Who acts: girls, noise, Becasigue. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 24, sentence 89

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The girls heard the grating noise, but fancying it was a mouse, paid no attention, and Becasigue was left in peace to pursue his work.

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**Who acts:** girls, noise, Becasigue · **What happens:** hear, fancy, be, pay, leave, pursue · **To what, where:** grating noise, mouse, attention, Becasigue, peace, work

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, noise, Becasigue), 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:pg3027:24:89
# text = The girls heard the grating noise, but fancying it was a mouse, paid no attention, and Becasigue was left in peace to pursue his work.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	grating	grating	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	fancying	fancy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	paid	pay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
17	attention	attention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	Becasigue	Becasigue	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	pursue	pursue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the girls | the grating noise |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer noise=Stimulus |
| 2 | **fancy** | gerund | the girls *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | past | noise | a mouse |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pay** | past | the girls *not said here* | no attention |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attention=Asset |
| 5 | **leave** | past · passive |  | Becasigue |  | peace |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in peace=Location |
| 6 | **pursue** | to-infinitive |  | Becasigue's work |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Theme |
| 7 | **work** |  | Becasigue |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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