---
title: The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when h… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when he suddenly heard a loud baa amongst the bushes far away on one side of the path, and a feeble bleat answering it from the other side. Who acts: shepherd, feeble bleat. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac F
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when he suddenly heard a loud baa amongst the bushes far away on one side of the path, and a feeble bleat answering it from the other side.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, feeble bleat · **What happens:** walk, drive, hear, answer · **To what, where:** bull, loud baa, bleat, other side

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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, feeble bleat), 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:pg3454:2:52
# text = The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when he suddenly heard a loud baa amongst the bushes far away on one side of the path, and a feeble bleat answering it from the other side.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	driving	drive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	baa	baa	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	amongst	amongst	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
23	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
24	away	away	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	feeble	feeble	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	bleat	bleat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
36	answering	answer	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	35	acl	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
40	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	amod	_	_
41	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past · progressive | the shepherd |  |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **drive** | gerund | the shepherd *not said here* | the bull |  |  | before shepherd |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent bull=Theme before he=Destination |
| 3 | **hear** | past | shepherd | a loud baa |  |  |  | amongst the bushes; away, suddenly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer baa=Stimulus |
| 4 | **answer** *speech: assert* | gerund | a feeble bleat *not said here* | bleat |  | the other side |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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