---
title: It was late in the evening ere he could turn homeward, and on the ro… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: It was late in the evening ere he could turn homeward, and on the road there met him four lusty rogues that had been robbing passengers all day. Who acts: way, Tom, road, four lusty rogues. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 5, with its dependen
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/19/22/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [More English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/) / [More English Fairy Tales, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/19/) / 22

# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 5, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was late in the evening ere he could turn homeward, and on the road there met him four lusty rogues that had been robbing passengers all day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, Tom, road, four lusty rogues · **What happens:** be, turn, meet, rob · **To what, where:** evening ere, homeward, Tom, passengers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, Tom, road, four lusty rogues), 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:pg14241:19:22
# text = It was late in the evening ere he could turn homeward, and on the road there met him four lusty rogues that had been robbing passengers all day.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	ere	ere	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	homeward	homeward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
18	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
21	lusty	lusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	rogues	rogue	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux	_	_
26	robbing	rob	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	passengers	passenger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
28	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	29	det	_	_
29	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | way |  |  | the evening ere |  | late *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **turn** | could | Tom | homeward |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent homeward=Theme |
| 3 | **meet** | past | the road | Tom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **rob** | past · perfect · progressive | four lusty rogues | passengers |  |  | day |  | vn cheat-10.6.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent passenger=Source |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/19/21/)
- next →: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/19/23/)
- ↑ back to [More English Fairy Tales, part 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/19/)