---
title: When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and after h… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and after he had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to the tailor, ‘I say, is fiddling difficult?’ Who acts: bear, time, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Clever Tailor, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of a Clever Tailor, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and after he had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to the tailor, ‘I say, is fiddling difficult?’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bear, time, I · **What happens:** hear, not help, dance, be, say, fiddle · **To what, where:** music, dancing, tailor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Clever Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bear, time, I), 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:pg7277:51:34
# text = When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and after he had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to the tailor, ‘I say, is fiddling difficult?’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bear	bear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	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	music	music	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	danced	dance	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	19	det	_	_
19	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	so	so	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	pleased	pleased	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	parataxis	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
36	fiddling	fiddle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	ccomp	_	_
37	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the bear | the music |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | could | bear | dancing |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dancing=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **dance** | past · perfect | bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | past | some time |  |  |  |  | pleased *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | bear |  | the tailor |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to tailor=Recipient |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | I | the tailor *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent tailor=Topic |
| 7 | **fiddle** | present · progressive |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | vn trifle-105.3 «NP V PP.theme»: 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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