---
title: Seafaring people have often heard, off the coast of Kerry, on a stil… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Seafaring people have often heard, off the coast of Kerry, on a still night, the sound of music coming up from the water; and some, who have had good ears, could plainly distinguish Maurice Connor’s voice singing these words to his pipes-- Who acts: Seafaring people, music, some. A sentence of «The 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 78

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Seafaring people have often heard, off the coast of Kerry, on a still night, the sound of music coming up from the water; and some, who have had good ears, could plainly distinguish Maurice Connor’s voice singing these words to his pipes--

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**Who acts:** Seafaring people, music, some · **What happens:** hear, come up, have, distinguish, sing · **To what, where:** water, good ears, voice, words, pipes

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Seafaring people, music, some), 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:pg3454:18:78
# text = Seafaring people have often heard, off the coast of Kerry, on a still night, the sound of music coming up from the water; and some, who have had good ears, could plainly distinguish Maurice Connor’s voice singing these words to his pipes--
1	Seafaring	seafaring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	often	often	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Kerry	Kerry	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	still	still	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	acl	_	_
23	up	up	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	from	from	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	39	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	parataxis	_	_
34	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
37	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
38	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
40	Maurice	Maurice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nmod:poss	_	_
41	Connor	Connor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	’s	's	PART	POS	_	40	case	_	_
43	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	_
44	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	39	advcl	_	_
45	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	46	det	_	_
46	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	obj	_	_
47	to	to	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | present · perfect | Seafaring people |  |  |  | night | off the coast of Kerry; often *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **come up** | gerund | music *not said here* |  |  | the water |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from water=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **have** | present · perfect |  | good ears |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ear=Patient |
| 4 | **distinguish** | could | some | Maurice's voice |  |  |  | plainly *property* | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute voice=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | some *not said here* | this words | Maurice's pipes |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent word=Topic to pipe=Recipient |

<!-- .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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