---
title: But the criers, when they heard what he said, could not believe thei… — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: But the criers, when they heard what he said, could not believe their ears, and almost abandoned the body from excess of joy. Who acts: criers, father. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/49/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/) / [A Sleep and a Dream., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/) / 49

# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2, sentence 49

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the criers, when they heard what he said, could not believe their ears, and almost abandoned the body from excess of joy.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** criers, father · **What happens:** hear, say, not believe, abandon · **To what, where:** ears, body, excess · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (criers, father), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg68641:4:49
# text = But the criers, when they heard what he said, could not believe their ears, and almost abandoned the body from excess of joy.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	criers	crier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	abandoned	abandon	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	from	from	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	excess	excess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the criers |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | father |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **believe** | could |  | criers's ears |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ear=Stimulus |
| 4 | **abandon** | past | the criers *not said here* | the body |  | excess of joy |  | almost *property* | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme body=Source from excess=Destination |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/48/)
- next →: [sentence 50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/50/)
- ↑ back to [A Sleep and a Dream., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg68641/4/)