---
title: He was sitting on a bench outside an inn, when he heard two men who… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was sitting on a bench outside an inn, when he heard two men who were loading their mules talking about the Groac’h of the island of Lok. Who acts: fortune, two men, mules. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33, sentence 101

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He was sitting on a bench outside an inn, when he heard two men who were loading their mules talking about the Groac’h of the island of Lok.

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**Who acts:** fortune, two men, mules · **What happens:** sit, hear, load, talk · **To what, where:** bench, mules · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 33. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fortune, two men, mules), 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:pg3454:33:101
# text = He was sitting on a bench outside an inn, when he heard two men who were loading their mules talking about the Groac’h of the island of Lok.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bench	bench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	inn	inn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nummod	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	loading	load	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	mules	mule	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Groac’h	Groac'h	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	Lok	Lok	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | fortune |  |  | a bench outside a inn |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bench=Location |
| 2 | **hear** | past | fortune |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **load** | past · progressive | two men |  | beggars's mules |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent mule=Destination |
| 4 | **talk** | gerund | beggars's mules *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the Groac’h of the island of Lok | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about groac'h=Topic |

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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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