---
title: As he approached the den he heard piteous grunts and squeals from hi… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he approached the den he heard piteous grunts and squeals from his poor little brother and sister who lived in constant terror of the fox killing and eating them. Who acts: Blacky, poor little brother. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 78

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As he approached the den he heard piteous grunts and squeals from his poor little brother and sister who lived in constant terror of the fox killing and eating them.

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**Who acts:** Blacky, poor little brother · **What happens:** approach, hear, live, eat · **To what, where:** den, piteous grunts, constant terror, grunts

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Blacky, poor little brother), 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:pg7277:13:78
# text = As he approached the den he heard piteous grunts and squeals from his poor little brother and sister who lived in constant terror of the fox killing and eating them.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	piteous	piteous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	grunts	grunt	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	squeals	squeal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
20	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	constant	constant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	killing	killing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **approach** | past | Blacky | the den |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent den=Theme |
| 2 | **hear** | past | Blacky | piteous grunts and squeals |  |  |  | from Blacky's poor little brother and sister | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent grunt=Topic from brother=Source |
| 3 | **live** | past | Blacky's poor little brother and sister |  |  | constant terror of the fox killing |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in terror=Location |
| 4 | **eat** | gerund | Blacky's poor little brother and sister *not said here* | grunts *= grunt* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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