---
title: The trumpets gave no more sound than whistles made of onion-stalks,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The trumpets gave no more sound than whistles made of onion-stalks, or combs wrapped in paper; while the train of fifty carriages looked no better than fifty donkey carts. Who acts: trumpets, train. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Heart of Ice, part 3, sentence 68

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The trumpets gave no more sound than whistles made of onion-stalks, or combs wrapped in paper; while the train of fifty carriages looked no better than fifty donkey carts.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** trumpets, train · **What happens:** give, make, wrap, look · **To what, where:** more sound, whistles, combs, paper

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Heart of Ice, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (trumpets, train), 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:pg7277:16:68
# text = The trumpets gave no more sound than whistles made of onion-stalks, or combs wrapped in paper; while the train of fifty carriages looked no better than fifty donkey carts.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	trumpets	trumpet	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
5	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	than	than	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	whistles	whistle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
9	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	onion	onion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	stalks	stalk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	combs	comb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	wrapped	wrap	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
21	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	train	train	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	carriages	carriage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
27	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
28	no	no	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	xcomp	_	_
30	than	than	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	33	nummod	_	_
32	donkey	donkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	carts	cart	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | the trumpets | no more sound |  |  |  | than whistles | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | participle |  | whistles *not said here* |  |  |  | of onion stalks or combs | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **wrap** | participle |  | combs *not said here* |  | paper |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in paper=Destination |
| 4 | **look** | past | the train of fifty carriages |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=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 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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