---
title: His wife, hearing him chattering goodness knows what, took up her we… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife, hearing him chattering goodness knows what, took up her wet broom and swept the ground all about him. Who acts: wife. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Two in a Sack, sentence 37

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His wife, hearing him chattering goodness knows what, took up her wet broom and swept the ground all about him.

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**Who acts:** wife · **What happens:** hear, chatter, know, take up, sweep · **To what, where:** soul, goodness, wet broom, ground · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Two in a Sack. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife), 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:pg641:17:37
# text = His wife, hearing him chattering goodness knows what, took up her wet broom and swept the ground all about him.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	hearing	hear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	chattering	chatter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	advcl	_	_
7	goodness	goodness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
12	up	up	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	broom	broom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	swept	sweep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | gerund | soul's wife *not said here* | soul |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |
| 2 | **chatter** | gerund | soul's wife *not said here* | goodness |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent goodness=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | present | soul's wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **take up** | past |  | wife's wet broom |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument what=Theme broom=Destination |
| 5 | **sweep** | past |  | the ground |  |  |  | about soul | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent ground=Theme about he=Trajectory |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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