---
title: Stooping down as he spoke he traced three circles on the ground and… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Stooping down as he spoke he traced three circles on the ground and murmured some words very low, which Peronnik could not hear. Who acts: man, Peronnik. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, 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/pg3454/26/118/)

<!-- 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 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/) / 118

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 118

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Stooping down as he spoke he traced three circles on the ground and murmured some words very low, which Peronnik could not hear.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, Peronnik · **What happens:** stoop down, speak, trace, murmur, not hear · **To what, where:** three circles, ground, words · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, Peronnik), 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:pg3454:26:118
# text = Stooping down as he spoke he traced three circles on the ground and murmured some words very low, which Peronnik could not hear.
1	Stooping	stoop	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	csubj	_	_
2	down	down	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	traced	trace	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	circles	circle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	murmured	murmur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
15	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
17	very	very	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obj	_	_
21	Peronnik	Peronnik	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **stoop down** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **trace** | past | man | three circles |  | the ground |  |  | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent circle=Theme on ground=Destination |
| 4 | **murmur** *speech: other* | past | man *not said here* | some words |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **hear** | could | Peronnik |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/117/)
- next →: [sentence 119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/119/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/)