---
title: When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed, and ran round and roun… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed, and ran round and round it, barking. Who acts: dogs. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature, sentence 23

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When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed, and ran round and round it, barking.

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**Who acts:** dogs · **What happens:** come, sniff, run, round, bark · **To what, where:** tree

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Allerleirauh; Or, the Many-furred Creature. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dogs), 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:pg7277:42:23
# text = When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed, and ran round and round it, barking.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sniffed	sniff	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	round	round	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	round	round	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	barking	bark	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | King's dogs |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to tree=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **sniff** | past | dogs *= dog* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **run** | past | dogs *= dog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **round** | infinitive | dogs *= dog* *not said here* | tree |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 5 | **bark** | gerund | dogs *= dog* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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