---
title: But as he went, a laugh, which yet was something of a bleat, rang in… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he went, a laugh, which yet was something of a bleat, rang in his ears, and though he tried not to hear, the words reached him, ‘Oh, dear! Who acts: sheep, laugh, words. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/10/40/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But as he went, a laugh, which yet was something of a bleat, rang in his ears, and though he tried not to hear, the words reached him, ‘Oh, dear!

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**Who acts:** sheep, laugh, words · **What happens:** go, be, ring, try, not hear, reach · **To what, where:** laugh, something, ears, 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 (sheep, laugh, 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:pg3454:10:40
# text = But as he went, a laugh, which yet was something of a bleat, rang in his ears, and though he tried not to hear, the words reached him, ‘Oh, dear!
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
10	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	appos	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bleat	bleat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
17	rang	ring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	nsubj	_	_
32	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
35	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	38	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
38	dear	dear	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | sheep | a laugh |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | a laugh | something |  |  | yet | of a bleat | tree rules |
| 3 | **ring** | past |  |  |  | sheep's ears |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ear=Location |
| 4 | **try** | past | sheep |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **not** **hear** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | sheep *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **reach** | past | the words | sheep |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent he=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 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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