---
title: Not knowing what to do next, he walked a little distance up the bank… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Not knowing what to do next, he walked a little distance up the bank, and there, over his head, a beautiful city was floating in the air. Who acts: Scarcely, beautiful city. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 27

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Not knowing what to do next, he walked a little distance up the bank, and there, over his head, a beautiful city was floating in the air.

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**Who acts:** Scarcely, beautiful city · **What happens:** not know, do, walk, float · **To what, where:** little distance, head, air

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, beautiful city), 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:pg2435:19:27
# text = Not knowing what to do next, he walked a little distance up the bank, and there, over his head, a beautiful city was floating in the air.
1	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	next	next	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	floating	float	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | gerund | Scarcely *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | Scarcely *not said here* |  |  |  |  | next *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **walk** | past | Scarcely | a little distance |  | Scarcely's head |  | up the bank | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source PP.destination PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent distance=Theme over head=Initial\_Location up bank=Trajectory |
| 4 | **float** | past · progressive | a beautiful city |  |  | the air |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Trajectory |

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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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