---
title: He thought it would be easy enough to follow the path along which he… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought it would be easy enough to follow the path along which he had come, but somehow it was always branching off in unexpected directions. Who acts: boy, chase. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 86

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He thought it would be easy enough to follow the path along which he had come, but somehow it was always branching off in unexpected directions.

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**Who acts:** boy, chase · **What happens:** think, be, follow, come, branch off · **To what, where:** path, unexpected directions · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, chase), 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:pg2435:13:86
# text = He thought it would be easy enough to follow the path along which he had come, but somehow it was always branching off in unexpected directions.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	expl	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
7	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	csubj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	along	along	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obl	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	come	come	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
19	somehow	somehow	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	23	advmod	_	_
23	branching	branch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
24	off	off	ADP	RP	_	23	compound:prt	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	unexpected	unexpected	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | would |  |  |  |  |  | easy, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **follow** | to-infinitive |  | the path |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past · perfect | boy |  |  | the path |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme along which=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **branch off** | past · progressive | chase |  |  | unexpected directions |  | always, somehow *property* | vn differ-23.4 «NP V»: agent=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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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