---
title: The passing bell was rung, and he lay expecting Death to come for him. — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The passing bell was rung, and he lay expecting Death to come for him. Who acts: Count. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Nettle Spinner, sentence 138

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The passing bell was rung, and he lay expecting Death to come for him.

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**Who acts:** Count · **What happens:** ring, lie, expect, come · **To what, where:** passing bell, Death

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nettle Spinner. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Count), 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:pg540:42:138
# text = The passing bell was rung, and he lay expecting Death to come for him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	passing	passing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	bell	bell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	rung	ring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
10	expecting	expect	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
11	Death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ring** | past · passive |  | the passing bell |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **lie** | past | Count |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **expect** | gerund | Count *not said here* | Death |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent death=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | to-infinitive | Count *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Count | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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