---
title: He had beheld no one except the old women, and it was not very likel… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had beheld no one except the old women, and it was not very likely that they would be able to help him. Who acts: noise, river, sides. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 35, sentence 36

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He had beheld no one except the old women, and it was not very likely that they would be able to help him.

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**Who acts:** noise, river, sides · **What happens:** behold, not be, be, help · **To what, where:** one, noise

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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 (noise, river, sides), 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:pg3027:35:36
# text = He had beheld no one except the old women, and it was not very likely that they would be able to help him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	beheld	behold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	except	except	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
15	very	very	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	xcomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **behold** | past · perfect | noise | no one |  |  |  | except the old women | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | river |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | would | sides *= side* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **help** | to-infinitive | sides *= side* *not said here* |  | noise |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |

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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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