---
title: An owl laughed “Hoo! hoo!” almost in his face, as he peered over the… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: An owl laughed “Hoo! hoo!” almost in his face, as he peered over the edge of the gulf, and the old man threw himself back in a perspiration of horror. Who acts: owl, Wali, old man. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, with its dependency 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1, sentence 90

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An owl laughed “Hoo! hoo!” almost in his face, as he peered over the edge of the gulf, and the old man threw himself back in a perspiration of horror.

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**Who acts:** owl, Wali, old man · **What happens:** laugh, peer, throw back · **To what, where:** Hoo, face, Wali, perspiration

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (owl, Wali, old man), 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:pg3282:34:90
# text = An owl laughed “Hoo! hoo!” almost in his face, as he peered over the edge of the gulf, and the old man threw himself back in a perspiration of horror.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Hoo	hoo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
7	hoo	hoo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	peered	peer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	over	over	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	edge	edge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	gulf	gulf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obj	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	perspiration	perspiration	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | a owl | Hoo |  | Wali's face |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hoo=Theme |
| 2 | **peer** | past | Wali |  |  |  |  | over the edge of the gulf | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent over edge=Theme |
| 3 | **throw back** | past | the old man | Wali |  | a perspiration of horror |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent himself=Theme in perspiration=Destination |

<!-- .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 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.

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