---
title: But no voice answered them; and they fell to searching all about, le… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But no voice answered them; and they fell to searching all about, lest perchance their sister might have dropped some clue to guide them. Who acts: voice, sheds, sister. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/35/106/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/35/) / 106

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 106

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But no voice answered them; and they fell to searching all about, lest perchance their sister might have dropped some clue to guide them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** voice, sheds, sister · **What happens:** answer, fall, search, drop, guide · **To what, where:** sheds, clue

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice, sheds, sister), 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:pg3027:35:106
# text = But no voice answered them; and they fell to searching all about, lest perchance their sister might have dropped some clue to guide them.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	3	det	_	_
3	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	searching	search	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
12	all	all	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	about	about	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	perchance	perchance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	parataxis	_	_
22	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	23	det	_	_
23	clue	clue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	guide	guide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | no voice |  | sheds *= shed* |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 2 | **fall** | past | sheds *= shed* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **search** | gerund | sheds *= shed* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **drop** | might · perfect | sheds's sister | some clue |  |  |  | lest perchance | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clue=Theme |
| 5 | **guide** | to-infinitive | sheds's sister *not said here* | sheds *= shed* |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/35/105/)
- next →: [sentence 107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/35/107/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/35/)