---
title: ‘I hear horses’ hoofs behind us,’ said Hyacinthia to the Prince. — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I hear horses’ hoofs behind us,’ said Hyacinthia to the Prince. Who acts: I, Hyacinthia. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 32

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‘I hear horses’ hoofs behind us,’ said Hyacinthia to the Prince.

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**Who acts:** I, Hyacinthia · **What happens:** hear, say · **To what, where:** hoofs · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, 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 (I, Hyacinthia), 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:pg7277:28:32
# text = ‘I hear horses’ hoofs behind us,’ said Hyacinthia to the Prince.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hear	hear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
4	horses	horse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Hyacinthia	Hyacinthia	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | present | I | horses's hoofs |  |  |  | behind us | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer hoof=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Hyacinthia |  |  |  |  | to the Prince | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to prince=Experiencer clause=Topic |

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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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