---
title: One evening more than eighty years ago a man named William was passi… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One evening more than eighty years ago a man named William was passing along the bank of a stream when he noticed a sheep who was bleating loudly. Who acts: man, William, sheep. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 32

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One evening more than eighty years ago a man named William was passing along the bank of a stream when he noticed a sheep who was bleating loudly.

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**Who acts:** man, William, sheep · **What happens:** name, pass, notice, bleat · **To what, where:** man, bank, sheep

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, William, sheep), 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:pg3454:10:32
# text = One evening more than eighty years ago a man named William was passing along the bank of a stream when he noticed a sheep who was bleating loudly.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	5	advmod	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	_
5	eighty	eighty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	William	William	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
14	along	along	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	noticed	notice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	bleating	bleat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	loudly	loudly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **name** | participle |  | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pass** | past · progressive | a man |  |  | the bank of a stream |  | ago *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme along bank=Location |
| 3 | **notice** | past | William | a sheep |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sheep=Stimulus |
| 4 | **bleat** | past · progressive | a sheep |  |  |  |  | loudly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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