---
title: Once upon a time a shepherd was taking his flock out to pasture, whe… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time a shepherd was taking his flock out to pasture, when he found a little baby lying in a meadow, left there by some wicked person, who thought it was too much trouble to look after it. Who acts: shepherd, little baby, wicked person, baby. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andr
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time a shepherd was taking his flock out to pasture, when he found a little baby lying in a meadow, left there by some wicked person, who thought it was too much trouble to look after it.

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**Who acts:** shepherd, little baby, wicked person, baby · **What happens:** take out, pasture, find, lie, leave, think · **To what, where:** flock, little baby, meadow, much trouble · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 31. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd, little baby, wicked person, baby), 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:pg2435:31:21
# text = Once upon a time a shepherd was taking his flock out to pasture, when he found a little baby lying in a meadow, left there by some wicked person, who thought it was too much trouble to look after it.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	taking	take	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	out	out	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	pasture	pasture	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	acl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	meadow	meadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl	_	_
27	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	31	det	_	_
30	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
33	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
34	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	cop	_	_
37	too	too	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
38	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	ccomp	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	acl	_	_
42	after	after	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take out** | past · progressive | a shepherd | Shepherd's flock |  |  | time | once, out *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flock=Theme |
| 2 | **pasture** | to-infinitive | a shepherd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find** | past | Shepherd | a little baby |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Topic |
| 4 | **lie** | gerund | a little baby *not said here* |  |  | a meadow |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in meadow=Location |
| 5 | **leave** | participle |  | a meadow *not said here* |  | there |  | by some wicked person | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent by person=Location |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | past | some wicked person |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past | baby | much trouble |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **look** | to-infinitive | some wicked person *not said here* |  |  |  | after baby |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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