---
title: The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from see… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from seeking the sheep and found that the kid had vanished. Who acts: shepherd, kid. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 42

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The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from seeking the sheep and found that the kid had vanished.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, kid · **What happens:** believe, return, seek, find, vanish · **To what, where:** eyes, sheep

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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 (shepherd, kid), 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:pg3454:2:42
# text = The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from seeking the sheep and found that the kid had vanished.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
11	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	seeking	seek	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	kid	kid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	vanished	vanish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | could | the shepherd | shepherd's eyes |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus |
| 2 | **return** | past | shepherd |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **seek** | gerund | shepherd *not said here* | the sheep |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sheep=Theme |
| 4 | **find** | past | shepherd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **vanish** | past · perfect | the kid |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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