---
title: He sniffed greedily the smell of the dishes, and raised his head the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He sniffed greedily the smell of the dishes, and raised his head the better to see the dancers. Who acts: colt, dishes. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 75

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He sniffed greedily the smell of the dishes, and raised his head the better to see the dancers.

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**Who acts:** colt, dishes · **What happens:** sniff, raise, see, smell · **To what, where:** smell, head, dancers

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (colt, dishes), 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:pg3454:27:75
# text = He sniffed greedily the smell of the dishes, and raised his head the better to see the dancers.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sniffed	sniff	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	greedily	greedily	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	smell	smell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dishes	dish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	raised	raise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dancers	dancer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sniff** | past | colt | the smell of the dishes |  |  |  | greedily *property* | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent smell=Theme |
| 2 | **raise** | past |  | colt's head |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive |  | the dancers |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer dancer=Stimulus |
| 4 | **smell** |  | the dishes |  |  |  |  |  | nom smell «cognition intransitive»: of=agent |

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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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