---
title: Nothing he could see, but to his ears the notes of a pipe floated ov… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Nothing he could see, but to his ears the notes of a pipe floated over the plain, and ever, as he listened, it drew nearer. Who acts: Nothing, enemy, plain. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36, 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/pg3027/36/96/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 36, sentence 96

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Nothing he could see, but to his ears the notes of a pipe floated over the plain, and ever, as he listened, it drew nearer.

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**Who acts:** Nothing, enemy, plain · **What happens:** see, float, listen, draw, note · **To what, where:** pipe, plain

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nothing, enemy, plain), 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:pg3027:36:96
# text = Nothing he could see, but to his ears the notes of a pipe floated over the plain, and ever, as he listened, it drew nearer.
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	notes	note	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	floated	float	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	_
16	over	over	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	conj	_	_
29	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | Nothing |  |  |  |  | to enemy's ears and the notes of a pipe | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **float** | participle |  | a pipe *not said here* |  | the plain |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over plain=Trajectory |
| 3 | **listen** | past | enemy |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **draw** | past | plain |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **note** |  |  | a pipe |  |  |  |  | nom note «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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