---
title: When the minister heard the sound of the midnight bells he wondered… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the minister heard the sound of the midnight bells he wondered greatly, but rejoiced that he had at last found some one to whom he could trust this duty. Who acts: minister, sound. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Headless Dwarfs, sentence 39

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the minister heard the sound of the midnight bells he wondered greatly, but rejoiced that he had at last found some one to whom he could trust this duty.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** minister, sound · **What happens:** hear, bell, wonder, rejoice, have, find · **To what, where:** sound, one, last, duty

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Headless Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (minister, sound), 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:pg641:33:39
# text = When the minister heard the sound of the midnight bells he wondered greatly, but rejoiced that he had at last found some one to whom he could trust this duty.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
10	bells	bell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
13	greatly	greatly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	rejoiced	rejoice	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	obl	_	_
22	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	ccomp	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	det	_	_
24	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	obl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	trust	trust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	acl:relcl	_	_
30	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	duty	duty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the minister | the sound |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 2 | **bell** | present | the sound *not said here* |  |  |  | midnight |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | minister |  |  |  |  | greatly *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **rejoice** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | minister |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **find** | past | minister *not said here* | some one |  | last |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent one=Theme at last=Asset |
| 7 | **trust** | could | minister | this duty | some one |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent duty=Theme to whom=Recipient |

<!-- .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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