---
title: ‘Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly a long, l… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly a long, long way off,’ answered the youth. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 2, sentence 78

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‘Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly a long, long way off,’ answered the youth.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** hear, neigh, answer · **To what, where:** something, long long way, youth

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg540:38:78
# text = ‘Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly a long, long way off,’ answered the youth.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	obj	_	_
7	like	like	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	foal	foal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	neighing	neigh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
11	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	plainly	plainly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	off	off	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
21	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | I | something |  |  |  | like a foal | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer something=Stimulus |
| 2 | **neigh** | gerund |  | a long long way |  |  |  | plainly *property* | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | I *not said here* | the youth |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent youth=Eventuality |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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