---
title: His wife pretended not to hear him, and sang and sang the same tune… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife pretended not to hear him, and sang and sang the same tune all the time they were on the water. Who acts: wife, time. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/107/)

<!-- 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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/) / 107

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His wife pretended not to hear him, and sang and sang the same tune all the time they were on the water.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wife, time · **What happens:** pretend, not hear, sing, be · **To what, where:** fish, same tune, water

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, time), 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:pg3454:23:107
# text = His wife pretended not to hear him, and sang and sang the same tune all the time they were on the water.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | past | fish's wife |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **hear** | to-infinitive | fish's wife *not said here* | fish |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | fish's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | fish's wife *not said here* | the same tune |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tune=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | all time | the same tune *not said here* |  | the water |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/106/)
- next →: [sentence 108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/108/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/)