---
title: The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little creature… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it, perched up in a tree. Who acts: man, little creature, hedgehog. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Jack My Hedgehog, sentence 23

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The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it, perched up in a tree.

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**Who acts:** man, little creature, hedgehog · **What happens:** peer, see, look, sit, perch up · **To what, where:** nothing, music, tree

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, little creature, hedgehog), 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:pg7277:48:23
# text = The man peered about, but he could see nothing but a little creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it, perched up in a tree.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	peered	peer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	9	obj	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
16	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
17	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cock	cock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	hedgehog	hedgehog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
23	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	perched	perch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
28	up	up	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **peer** | past | the man |  |  |  |  | about *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | could | man | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 3 | **look** | past | a little creature |  |  |  |  | like a cock; with a hedgehog | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **sit** | gerund | a hedgehog *not said here* |  |  | music |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on it=Location |
| 5 | **perch up** | participle | man *not said here* |  |  | a tree |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in tree=Location |

<!-- .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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