---
title: The more he howled the more the others laughed, till a girl who had… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The more he howled the more the others laughed, till a girl who had been washing clothes in the neighbouring stream hurried up to see what was the matter. Who acts: youth, others, girl. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Magic Swan, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The more he howled the more the others laughed, till a girl who had been washing clothes in the neighbouring stream hurried up to see what was the matter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** youth, others, girl · **What happens:** howl, laugh, wash, hurry up, see, be · **To what, where:** clothes, neighbouring stream, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Swan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth, others, girl), 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:pg7277:23:28
# text = The more he howled the more the others laughed, till a girl who had been washing clothes in the neighbouring stream hurried up to see what was the matter.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	howled	howl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	till	till	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux	_	_
17	washing	wash	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	17	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	neighbouring	neighbouring	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
23	hurried	hurry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl	_	_
24	up	up	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
27	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **howl** | past | youth |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **laugh** | past | the others |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **wash** | past · perfect · progressive | a girl | clothes |  | the neighbouring stream |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Patient |
| 4 | **hurry up** | participle |  | the neighbouring stream *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 6 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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