---
title: He soon spied the three hens strutting proudly about, though they we… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He soon spied the three hens strutting proudly about, though they were really anxiously wondering if there were not some grains lying on the ground that they might be glad to eat. Who acts: boy, three hens, hens, grains. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/21/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/) / 21

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He soon spied the three hens strutting proudly about, though they were really anxiously wondering if there were not some grains lying on the ground that they might be glad to eat.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boy, three hens, hens, grains · **What happens:** spy, strut, wonder, be, lie, eat · **To what, where:** three hens, ground

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, three hens, hens, grains), 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:pg3282:23:21
# text = He soon spied the three hens strutting proudly about, though they were really anxiously wondering if there were not some grains lying on the ground that they might be glad to eat.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	spied	spy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	hens	hen	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	strutting	strut	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
8	proudly	proudly	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	about	about	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	really	really	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	anxiously	anxiously	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	wondering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	grains	grain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
23	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spy** | past | boy | the three hens |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hen=Stimulus |
| 2 | **strut** | gerund | the three hens *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past · progressive | hens *= hen* |  |  |  |  | anxiously *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | some grains |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **lie** | gerund | some grains *not said here* |  |  | the ground |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location |
| 6 | **is** | might | hens *= hen* |  |  |  |  | glad *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | hens *= hen* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: 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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/22/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/23/)