---
title: He sent them into the woods and fields, but instead of looking for a… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He sent them into the woods and fields, but instead of looking for a nest they only played pranks on him. Who acts: Peter, boys. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/16/49/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16, sentence 49

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He sent them into the woods and fields, but instead of looking for a nest they only played pranks on him.

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**Who acts:** Peter, boys · **What happens:** send, look, play · **To what, where:** boys, woods, pranks

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Peter, boys), 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:pg2435:16:49
# text = He sent them into the woods and fields, but instead of looking for a nest they only played pranks on him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	into	into	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	fields	field	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
11	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	13	mark	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	fixed	_	_
13	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
20	pranks	prank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | Peter | boys *= boy* |  | the woods and fields |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **look** | gerund | boys *= boy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for a nest | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for nest=Theme |
| 3 | **play** | past | boys *= boy* | pranks |  |  |  | on Peter | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prank=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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