---
title: It was true, they said, that about mid-day they had heard a great no… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was true, they said, that about mid-day they had heard a great noise, but as that was a matter of daily occurrence they did not think much of it. Who acts: body, screams, that. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 162

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was true, they said, that about mid-day they had heard a great noise, but as that was a matter of daily occurrence they did not think much of it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** body, screams, that · **What happens:** be, say, hear, not think · **To what, where:** that, much · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (body, screams, that), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:2:162
# text = It was true, they said, that about mid-day they had heard a great noise, but as that was a matter of daily occurrence they did not think much of it.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	obj	_	_
9	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	mid-day	mid-day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	daily	daily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	occurrence	occurrence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
31	much	much	PRON	PRP	PronType=Ind	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | body |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | screams *= scream* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | screams *= scream* | that |  |  |  | about mid-day | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | that |  |  |  |  | as a matter; of daily occurrence | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | past · do-support | screams *= scream* | much |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot much=Theme |

<!-- .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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