---
title: As he spoke he heard the voices give a mocking laugh; but the old wo… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he spoke he heard the voices give a mocking laugh; but the old woman took no notice, and only bade the knight follow her. Who acts: gentleman, voices, old woman, bade. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As he spoke he heard the voices give a mocking laugh; but the old woman took no notice, and only bade the knight follow her.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** gentleman, voices, old woman, bade · **What happens:** speak, hear, give, take, follow · **To what, where:** mocking laugh, notice, woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gentleman, voices, old woman, bade), 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:pg3282:38:26
# text = As he spoke he heard the voices give a mocking laugh; but the old woman took no notice, and only bade the knight follow her.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	mocking	mocking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
18	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	19	det	_	_
19	notice	notice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	bade	bade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	parataxis	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | gentleman |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | gentleman |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **give** | present | the voices | a mocking laugh |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent laugh=Theme |
| 4 | **take** | past | the old woman | no notice |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent notice=Theme |
| 5 | **follow** | infinitive | bade | woman |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |

<!-- .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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