---
title: This engine made an incessant noise, like a water-mill, and we conje… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This engine made an incessant noise, like a water-mill, and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god he worships, but probably the latter, for he told us that he seldom did anything without consulting it. Who acts: engine, we, animal. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew L
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter II, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This engine made an incessant noise, like a water-mill, and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god he worships, but probably the latter, for he told us that he seldom did anything without consulting it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** engine, we, animal · **What happens:** make, be, worship, tell, do, consult · **To what, where:** incessant noise, unknown animal, us, anything, engine · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter II. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (engine, we, animal), 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:pg503:44:22
# text = This engine made an incessant noise, like a water-mill, and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god he worships, but probably the latter, for he told us that he seldom did anything without consulting it.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	engine	engine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	incessant	incessant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	like	like	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	mill	mill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
16	conjecture	conjecture	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	flat	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
19	either	either	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc:preconj	_	_
20	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
21	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	worships	worship	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
35	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	iobj	_	_
39	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
40	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
41	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
42	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	advcl	_	_
43	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	42	obj	_	_
44	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
45	consulting	consult	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	advcl	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | this engine | a incessant noise |  |  |  | like a water mill | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset noise=Product |
| 2 | **is a** | present | we | some unknown animal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **worship** |  | animal |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | animal |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent we=Recipient |
| 5 | **do** | past | animal | anything |  |  |  | seldom *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 6 | **consult** | gerund | animal *not said here* | engine |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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- ↑ back to [Chapter II](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/44/)