---
title: When the driver came out and was ready to start, the lad ran up and… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: When the driver came out and was ready to start, the lad ran up and asked him if he might walk by the side of the wagon. Who acts: driver, lad. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the City., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/11/)

<!-- 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/) / [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/) / [I. the City.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/) / 11

# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, I. the City., sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the driver came out and was ready to start, the lad ran up and asked him if he might walk by the side of the wagon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** driver, lad · **What happens:** come out, be, start, run up, ask, walk · **To what, where:** lad

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, I. the City.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (driver, lad), 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:pg18442:49:11
# text = When the driver came out and was ready to start, the lad ran up and asked him if he might walk by the side of the wagon.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	driver	driver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
5	out	out	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	up	up	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	iobj	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
23	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wagon	wagon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come out** | past | the driver |  |  |  |  | out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | the driver *not said here* |  |  |  |  | ready *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **start** | to-infinitive | the driver *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 4 | **run up** | past | the lad |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the lad *not said here* |  | lad |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **walk** *a condition, not said to happen* | might | driver |  |  |  |  | by the side of the wagon | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by side=Trajectory |

<!-- .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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/10/)
- next →: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/12/)
- ↑ back to [I. the City.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/49/)