---
title: The Tanuki, who was busy with something else, observed nothing, and… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Tanuki, who was busy with something else, observed nothing, and only called out to ask what was the meaning of the crackling that he heard. Who acts: Tanuki, hare. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/4/50/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 50

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The Tanuki, who was busy with something else, observed nothing, and only called out to ask what was the meaning of the crackling that he heard.

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**Who acts:** Tanuki, hare · **What happens:** be, observe, call out, ask, hear · **To what, where:** nothing, meaning, crackling · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tanuki, hare), 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:pg5615:4:50
# text = The Tanuki, who was busy with something else, observed nothing, and only called out to ask what was the meaning of the crackling that he heard.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Tanuki	Tanuki	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	busy	busy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	obl	_	_
9	else	else	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	observed	observe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
12	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	meaning	meaning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	crackling	crackling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the Tanuki |  |  |  |  | with something; busy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **observe** | participle | the Tanuki *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic |
| 3 | **call out** *speech: assert* | participle | the Tanuki *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | to-infinitive | the Tanuki *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past |  | the meaning |  |  |  | of the crackling | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** | past | hare | the crackling *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer crackling=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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