---
title: The monks were just spreading out their nets to dry on the shore, wh… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The monks were just spreading out their nets to dry on the shore, when they heard the sound of crying. Who acts: monks, sound. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 39

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The monks were just spreading out their nets to dry on the shore, when they heard the sound of crying.

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**Who acts:** monks, sound · **What happens:** spread out, dry, hear, cry · **To what, where:** nets, shore, sound

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (monks, sound), 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:pg641:4:39
# text = The monks were just spreading out their nets to dry on the shore, when they heard the sound of crying.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	monks	monk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	spreading	spread	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	out	out	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	nets	net	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	dry	dry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spread out** | past · progressive | the monks | monks's nets |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location net=Theme |
| 2 | **dry** | to-infinitive | the monks *not said here* |  |  | the shore |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **hear** | past | monks *= monk* | the sound |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer sound=Stimulus |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the sound *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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