---
title: And the words were hardly out of his mouth, when 'Pif! pah!' and the… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the words were hardly out of his mouth, when 'Pif! pah!' and the two new- comers were stretched dead beside him. Who acts: words. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 37

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And the words were hardly out of his mouth, when 'Pif! pah!' and the two new- comers were stretched dead beside him.

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**Who acts:** words · **What happens:** be, stretch · **To what, where:** mouth, two new comers

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (words), 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:pg3027:9:37
# text = And the words were hardly out of his mouth, when 'Pif! pah!' and the two new- comers were stretched dead beside him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
5	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	of	of	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	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Pif	Pif	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	pah	pah	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
20	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
21	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	_
23	comers	comer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	stretched	stretch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
26	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	xcomp	_	_
27	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the words |  |  | nicer's mouth |  | hardly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stretch** | past · passive |  | the two new comers |  |  |  | dead *property* | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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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