---
title: He was just about to give it up when he overheard two men whispering… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was just about to give it up when he overheard two men whispering, and one laughed softly, and peering behind a pillar, he saw two Afghan horsedealers counting out his bag of money! Who acts: Moti, one, two Afghan horsedealers. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was just about to give it up when he overheard two men whispering, and one laughed softly, and peering behind a pillar, he saw two Afghan horsedealers counting out his bag of money!

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**Who acts:** Moti, one, two Afghan horsedealers · **What happens:** be, overhear, whisper, laugh, peer, see · **To what, where:** two men, two Afghan horsedealers, bag

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Moti, one, two Afghan horsedealers), 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:pg3454:15:49
# text = He was just about to give it up when he overheard two men whispering, and one laughed softly, and peering behind a pillar, he saw two Afghan horsedealers counting out his bag of money!
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	just	just	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	up	up	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
9	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	overheard	overhear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	whispering	whisper	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nsubj	_	_
18	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	peering	peer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
23	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	pillar	pillar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
30	Afghan	Afghan	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	horsedealers	horsedealer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
32	counting	count	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	acl	_	_
33	out	out	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Moti |  |  |  |  | about, give *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **overhear** | past | Moti | two men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | gerund | Moti *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **laugh** | past | one |  |  |  |  | softly *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **peer** | gerund | one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | behind a pillar | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent behind pillar=Theme |
| 6 | **see** | past | Moti | two Afghan horsedealers |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer horsedealer=Stimulus |
| 7 | **count out** | gerund | two Afghan horsedealers *not said here* | Moti's bag of money |  |  |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=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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