---
title: The watchman was blowing his horn: a great fire had broken out; the… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The watchman was blowing his horn: a great fire had broken out; the whole town was in flames. Who acts: watchman, whole town. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 84

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The watchman was blowing his horn: a great fire had broken out; the whole town was in flames.

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**Who acts:** watchman, whole town · **What happens:** blow, break out, be · **To what, where:** horn, great fire, flames

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, 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 (watchman, whole town), 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:pg5615:2:84
# text = The watchman was blowing his horn: a great fire had broken out; the whole town was in flames.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	watchman	watchman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	blowing	blow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	horn	horn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
13	out	out	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	flames	flame	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **blow** | past · progressive | the watchman | watchman's horn |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent horn=Patient |
| 2 | **break out** | past · perfect · passive |  | a great fire |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the whole town |  |  | flames |  |  | tree rules |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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