---
title: But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and hid himself in the wood,… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and hid himself in the wood, and the moment the man drew near with the kid on his shoulders began to bleat like a sheep, and no one, not even the sheep’s own mother, could have told the difference. Who acts: Shifty Lad, man, moment, sheep. A sentence of «The L
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/39/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/) / 39

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and hid himself in the wood, and the moment the man drew near with the kid on his shoulders began to bleat like a sheep, and no one, not even the sheep’s own mother, could have told the difference.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Shifty Lad, man, moment, sheep · **What happens:** be, hide, draw, begin, bleat, not mother · **To what, where:** look out, Lad, wood, moment, one, difference · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Shifty Lad, man, moment, sheep), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:2:39
# text = But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and hid himself in the wood, and the moment the man drew near with the kid on his shoulders began to bleat like a sheep, and no one, not even the sheep’s own mother, could have told the difference.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	Lad	Lad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
8	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	out	out	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
14	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
25	near	near	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	kid	kid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	bleat	bleat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	like	like	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	53	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	53	cc	_	_
40	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	41	det	_	_
41	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
43	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	49	advmod	_	_
44	even	even	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	’s	's	PART	POS	_	46	case	_	_
48	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
51	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	53	aux	_	_
52	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	53	aux	_	_
53	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	difference	difference	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Shifty Lad |  |  | the look out |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hide** | past |  | Lad |  | the wood |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in wood=Location |
| 3 | **draw** | past | the man | the moment *not said here* |  |  |  | with the kid on Lad's shoulders; near *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moment=Theme |
| 4 | **begin** | past | the moment |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **bleat** | to-infinitive | the moment *not said here* |  |  |  |  | like a sheep | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **mother** |  | the sheep |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could · perfect · passive |  | no one and own mother | the difference |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient difference=Topic |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/38/)
- next →: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/40/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/)