---
title: When, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is that bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us?' Who acts: you, bright thing. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 26, sentence 32

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When, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is that bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us?'

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**Who acts:** you, bright thing · **What happens:** hear, look, be, move · **To what, where:** voice, bright thing

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, bright thing), 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:pg3027:26:32
# text = When, suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is that bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us?'
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
3	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	look	look	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
17	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	21	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
20	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	moving	move	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
27	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past · passive |  | a voice |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Topic from behind=Source |
| 2 | **look** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **look** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is a** | present |  | that bright thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **move** | present · progressive | that bright thing |  |  |  |  | towards us; swiftly *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme towards we=Trajectory |

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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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