---
title: The fox's quick ears heard the sound of his paws, though they were s… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The fox's quick ears heard the sound of his paws, though they were soft as velvet, and turning her head she said politely: Who acts: quick ears, ears, village. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/63/)

<!-- 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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/) / 63

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 63

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The fox's quick ears heard the sound of his paws, though they were soft as velvet, and turning her head she said politely:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** quick ears, ears, village · **What happens:** hear, be, turn, say · **To what, where:** sound, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (quick ears, ears, village), 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:pg3027:6:63
# text = The fox's quick ears heard the sound of his paws, though they were soft as velvet, and turning her head she said politely:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	quick	quick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	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	paws	paw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
17	as	as	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	velvet	velvet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	turning	turn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
26	politely	politely	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the fox's quick ears | the sound of Wolf's paws |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 2 | **is** | past | ears *= ear* |  |  |  |  | as velvet; soft *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **turn** | gerund |  | village's head |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | village |  |  |  |  | politely *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/62/)
- next →: [sentence 64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/64/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/)