---
title: But the fox was not there to hear this insult, for she had gone off… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the fox was not there to hear this insult, for she had gone off to a neighbouring fowl-house, where she had noticed some fat young chickens the day before. Who acts: fox, traitor. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 17

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But the fox was not there to hear this insult, for she had gone off to a neighbouring fowl-house, where she had noticed some fat young chickens the day before.

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**Who acts:** fox, traitor · **What happens:** be, go off, neighbour, notice · **To what, where:** fat young chickens

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, traitor), 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:pg3027:7:17
# text = But the fox was not there to hear this insult, for she had gone off to a neighbouring fowl-house, where she had noticed some fat young chickens the day before.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	insult	insult	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
16	off	off	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
19	neighbouring	neighbour	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	amod	_	_
20	fowl	fowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	27	advmod	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	noticed	notice	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	conj	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
29	fat	fat	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	chickens	chicken	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod:unmarked	_	_
34	before	before	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the fox |  |  | there |  | hear *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go off** | past · perfect | traitor |  |  |  |  | to a neighbouring fowl house | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **neighbour** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **notice** | past · perfect | traitor | some fat young chickens  the day |  |  |  | before *property* | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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