--- title: One day as he was going up-stairs he met a little girl coming down. — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics description: One day as he was going up-stairs he met a little girl coming down. Who acts: man, little girl. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Antonio Canova., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/159/) [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/) / [Antonio Canova.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/) / 159 # Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Antonio Canova., sentence 159 One day as he was going up-stairs he met a little girl coming down. **Who acts:** man, little girl · **What happens:** go up, meet, come down · **To what, where:** stairs, little girl This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Antonio Canova.. 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 girl), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg18442:54:159 # text = One day as he was going up-stairs he met a little girl coming down. 1 One one NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 2 nummod _ _ 2 day day NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obl:unmarked _ _ 3 as as SCONJ IN _ 6 mark _ _ 4 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 5 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 6 going go VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 2 acl _ _ 7 up up ADP IN _ 9 case _ SpaceAfter=No 8 - - PUNCT HYPH _ 7 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 9 stairs stair NOUN NNS Number=Plur 6 obl _ _ 10 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 11 nsubj _ _ 11 met meet VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 12 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 14 det _ _ 13 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 14 amod _ _ 14 girl girl NOUN NN Number=Sing 11 obj _ _ 15 coming come VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 14 acl _ _ 16 down down ADV RB _ 15 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 17 . . PUNCT . _ 11 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go up** | past · progressive | man | stairs | | | | | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient stair=Extent | | 2 | **meet** | past | man | a little girl | | | day | | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Co-Agent | | 3 | **come down** | gerund | a little girl *not said here* | | | | | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 158](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/158/) - next →: [sentence 160](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/160/) - ↑ back to [Antonio Canova.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/54/)