---
title: Suddenly he heard fierce howls, and a dog as tall as a donkey, with… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Suddenly he heard fierce howls, and a dog as tall as a donkey, with eyes like billiard balls, came towards him, showing his teeth, which were like the prongs of a fork. Who acts: Prince, teeth. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Suddenly he heard fierce howls, and a dog as tall as a donkey, with eyes like billiard balls, came towards him, showing his teeth, which were like the prongs of a fork.

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**Who acts:** Prince, teeth · **What happens:** hear, come, show, be · **To what, where:** fierce howls, teeth

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, teeth), 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:pg540:40:76
# text = Suddenly he heard fierce howls, and a dog as tall as a donkey, with eyes like billiard balls, came towards him, showing his teeth, which were like the prongs of a fork.
1	Suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	fierce	fierce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	howls	howl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	as	as	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
12	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	billiard	billiard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
23	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	teeth	tooth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
31	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	like	like	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	prongs	prong	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	fork	fork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Prince | fierce howls |  |  |  | with eyes like billiard balls; suddenly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer howl=Stimulus |
| 2 | **come** | past | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards Prince | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **show** | gerund | Prince *not said here* | Prince's teeth and the prongs |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tooth=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | Prince's teeth and the prongs |  |  |  |  | like the prongs; of a fork | tree rules |

<!-- .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 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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