---
title: On he flew as if a whole army of foes were at his heels, and he seem… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On he flew as if a whole army of foes were at his heels, and he seemed to hear the noise of their approach growing nearer and nearer. Who acts: noise, whole army, approach, heels. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, with its dependency 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
On he flew as if a whole army of foes were at his heels, and he seemed to hear the noise of their approach growing nearer and nearer.

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**Who acts:** noise, whole army, approach, heels · **What happens:** fly, be, seem, hear, grow, noise · **To what, where:** noise

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (noise, whole army, approach, heels), 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:pg641:34:28
# text = On he flew as if a whole army of foes were at his heels, and he seemed to hear the noise of their approach growing nearer and nearer.
1	On	on	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	foes	foe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nmod	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	heels	heel	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	approach	approach	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
27	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	xcomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past | noise |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a whole army of foes |  |  |  |  | as noise's heels | tree rules |
| 3 | **seem** | past | noise |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 4 | **hear** | to-infinitive | noise *not said here* | the noise of heels's approach |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer noise=Stimulus |
| 5 | **grow** | gerund | heels's approach *not said here* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **noise** |  | heels's approach |  |  |  |  |  | nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent |
| 7 | **approach** |  | heels *= heel* |  |  |  |  |  | nom approach «act intransitive»: 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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