---
title: As he passed the door, he heard a sound of sobbing, and being a good… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he passed the door, he heard a sound of sobbing, and being a good-natured man he stopped to listen, thinking that perhaps he might be able to give some help. Who acts: king. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/7/18/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As he passed the door, he heard a sound of sobbing, and being a good-natured man he stopped to listen, thinking that perhaps he might be able to give some help.

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**Who acts:** king · **What happens:** pass, hear, be, stop, listen, think · **To what, where:** door, sound, natured man, help · **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 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king), 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:pg3454:7:18
# text = As he passed the door, he heard a sound of sobbing, and being a good-natured man he stopped to listen, thinking that perhaps he might be able to give some help.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	sobbing	sobbing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
15	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
17	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	natured	natured	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	ccomp	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	36	det	_	_
36	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past | king | the door |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme door=Trajectory |
| 2 | **hear** | past | king | a sound of sobbing |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is a** | gerund |  | a natured man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **stop** | past | king | a natured man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **listen** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is** | might | king |  |  |  |  | able, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 8 | **give** | to-infinitive | king *not said here* | some help |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent help=Theme |

<!-- .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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