---
title: He had chosen his time well, and in about half an hour the sound of… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He had chosen his time well, and in about half an hour the sound of a horse’s hoofs was heard. Who acts: emperor. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1, sentence 48

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He had chosen his time well, and in about half an hour the sound of a horse’s hoofs was heard.

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**Who acts:** emperor · **What happens:** choose, hear · **To what, where:** sound

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor), 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:pg641:38:48
# text = He had chosen his time well, and in about half an hour the sound of a horse’s hoofs was heard.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	about	about	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	half	half	DET	PDT	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac|PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** | past · perfect | emperor |  |  |  | time | well *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past · passive |  | the sound of a horse's hoofs |  |  | hour |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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