---
title: He was still gazing, when he heard a sound in the distance as if som… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was still gazing, when he heard a sound in the distance as if some one was calling hit by his name. Who acts: Birscha, one. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, sentence 37

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He was still gazing, when he heard a sound in the distance as if some one was calling hit by his name.

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**Who acts:** Birscha, one · **What happens:** gaze, hear, call, hit, name · **To what, where:** sound · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, 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 (Birscha, one), 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:pg641:22:37
# text = He was still gazing, when he heard a sound in the distance as if some one was calling hit by his name.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	still	still	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	17	det	_	_
17	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
20	hit	hit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gaze** | past · progressive | Birscha |  |  |  | still |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | Birscha | a sound |  |  |  | in the distance | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 3 | **call** | past · progressive | some one |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **hit** | participle | some one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by Birscha's name | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **name** |  | Birscha |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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