---
title: In a little while he heard a rustling over his head, and looking up,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In a little while he heard a rustling over his head, and looking up, he saw a turtle dove watching him with her bright eyes. Who acts: boy, turtle dove. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/33/53/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 53

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In a little while he heard a rustling over his head, and looking up, he saw a turtle dove watching him with her bright eyes.

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**Who acts:** boy, turtle dove · **What happens:** hear, look up, see, watch · **To what, where:** rustling, head, turtle dove, boy

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, turtle dove), 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:pg3027:33:53
# text = In a little while he heard a rustling over his head, and looking up, he saw a turtle dove watching him with her bright eyes.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rustling	rustling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	over	over	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	dove	dove	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | boy | a rustling |  | boy's head | while |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer rustling=Stimulus |
| 2 | **look up** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | boy | a turtle dove |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dove=Stimulus |
| 4 | **watch** | gerund | a turtle dove *not said here* | boy |  |  |  | with woman's bright eyes | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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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