---
title: The old soldier heard the horse's hoofs clattering on the road behin… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old soldier heard the horse's hoofs clattering on the road behind him, so he knew it must be the farmer pursuing him. Who acts: old soldier, hoofs, soldier, farmer. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack Hannaford, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Jack Hannaford, sentence 30

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The old soldier heard the horse's hoofs clattering on the road behind him, so he knew it must be the farmer pursuing him.

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**Who acts:** old soldier, hoofs, soldier, farmer · **What happens:** hear, clatter, know, be, pursue · **To what, where:** hoofs, road, farmer, soldier · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Jack Hannaford. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old soldier, hoofs, soldier, farmer), 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:pg7439:13:30
# text = The old soldier heard the horse's hoofs clattering on the road behind him, so he knew it must be the farmer pursuing him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	soldier	soldier	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	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	hoofs	hoof	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	clattering	clatter	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	farmer	farmer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	_
24	pursuing	pursue	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	23	acl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the old soldier | the horse's hoofs |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer hoof=Stimulus |
| 2 | **clatter** | gerund | the horse's hoofs *not said here* |  |  | the road |  | behind horse | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on road=Location |
| 3 | **know** | past | soldier |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is a** | must | farmer | the farmer |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **pursue** | gerund | the farmer *not said here* | soldier |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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