---
title: These words, low though they were spoken, reached Becasigue, who cou… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: These words, low though they were spoken, reached Becasigue, who could hardly believe his ears. Who acts: words, Becasigue. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 24, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 24, sentence 97

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These words, low though they were spoken, reached Becasigue, who could hardly believe his ears.

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**Who acts:** words, Becasigue · **What happens:** speak, reach, believe · **To what, where:** words, ears · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (words, 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:pg3027:24:97
# text = These words, low though they were spoken, reached Becasigue, who could hardly believe his ears.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
4	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
5	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	Becasigue	Becasigue	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | words *= word* |  |  |  | low *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reach** | past | this words |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **believe** | could | Becasigue | Becasigue's ears |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ear=Stimulus |

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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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