---
title: And as he climbed he heard behind him scoffs and jeers, but he kept… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And as he climbed he heard behind him scoffs and jeers, but he kept his ears steadily closed to them. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 72

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And as he climbed he heard behind him scoffs and jeers, but he kept his ears steadily closed to them.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** climb, hear, keep, close · **To what, where:** scoffs, ears

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg5615:20:72
# text = And as he climbed he heard behind him scoffs and jeers, but he kept his ears steadily closed to them.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	climbed	climb	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	scoffs	scoff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	jeers	jeer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	steadily	steadily	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	closed	close	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **climb** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **hear** | past | man | scoffs and jeers |  |  |  | behind giant | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer scoff=Stimulus |
| 3 | **keep** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **close** | participle · passive |  | man's ears | scoffs *= scoff* |  |  | steadily *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Patient to they=Recipient |

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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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