---
title: The little hyaena gazed at him in surprise, saying to herself, ‘What… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The little hyaena gazed at him in surprise, saying to herself, ‘What! was it really this tiny beast who put to death all our best people?’ when suddenly a gust of wind rustled the reeds that surrounded the enclosure, and the little hare, in a fright, hastily sprang back into Big Lion’s skin. Who act
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 23

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The little hyaena gazed at him in surprise, saying to herself, ‘What! was it really this tiny beast who put to death all our best people?’ when suddenly a gust of wind rustled the reeds that surrounded the enclosure, and the little hare, in a fright, hastily sprang back into Big Lion’s skin.

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**Who acts:** little hyaena, tiny beast, gust · **What happens:** gaze, say, be, put, rustle, surround · **To what, where:** surprise, Big, tiny beast, best people, reeds, fright · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little hyaena, tiny beast, gust), 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:pg5615:36:23
# text = The little hyaena gazed at him in surprise, saying to herself, ‘What! was it really this tiny beast who put to death all our best people?’ when suddenly a gust of wind rustled the reeds that surrounded the enclosure, and the little hare, in a fright, hastily sprang back into Big Lion’s skin.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	hyaena	hyaena	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	really	really	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
21	tiny	tiny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	30	det:predet	_	_
28	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	30	amod	_	_
30	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
33	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	39	advmod	_	_
34	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	gust	gust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nsubj	_	_
37	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	_
39	rustled	rustle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	reeds	reed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obj	_	_
42	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj:pass	_	_
43	surrounded	surround	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	41	acl	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	enclosure	enclosure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
47	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	54	det	_	_
54	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
56	hastily	hastily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	sprang	sprang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	appos	_	_
58	back	back	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
59	into	into	ADP	IN	_	63	case	_	_
60	Big	Big	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	61	compound	_	_
61	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	63	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	’s	's	PART	POS	_	61	case	_	_
63	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gaze** | past | the little hyaena |  |  | surprise |  | at hare | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the little hyaena *not said here* |  | Big |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient whether/if S»: agent=Pivot to herself=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | this tiny beast |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **put** | past | this tiny beast |  | our best people |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent people=Goal |
| 5 | **rustle** | past | a gust of wind | the reeds |  | a fright |  | the little hare *obl* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location reed=Theme |
| 6 | **surround** | participle · passive |  | the reeds |  |  |  |  | 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 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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