---
title: The dogs opened their mouths as if to bark, the toiling oxen seemed… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The dogs opened their mouths as if to bark, the toiling oxen seemed about to bellow, but neither bark nor bellow reached the prince. Who acts: dogs, toiling oxen, bark. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Grateful Prince, part 1, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The dogs opened their mouths as if to bark, the toiling oxen seemed about to bellow, but neither bark nor bellow reached the prince.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dogs, toiling oxen, bark · **What happens:** open, bark, toil, seem, bellow, reach · **To what, where:** mouths, prince

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Prince, 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 (dogs, toiling oxen, bark), 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:pg641:9:66
# text = The dogs opened their mouths as if to bark, the toiling oxen seemed about to bellow, but neither bark nor bellow reached the prince.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	opened	open	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	bark	bark	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	toiling	toil	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
13	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	bellow	bellow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	neither	neither	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	bark	bark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	23	cc	_	_
23	bellow	bellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
24	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | past | the dogs | birds's mouths |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location mouth=Theme |
| 2 | **bark** | to-infinitive | the dogs *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **toil** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **seem** | past | the toiling oxen |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **bellow** | to-infinitive | the toiling oxen *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **reach** | past | neither bark nor bellow | the prince |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent prince=Theme |

<!-- .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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