---
title: Merrily the shepherd blew on his pipes as he marched at the head of… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Merrily the shepherd blew on his pipes as he marched at the head of his flock, only stopping every now and then to say to the weeping girl at his side: Who acts: shepherd. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmati
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 24

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Merrily the shepherd blew on his pipes as he marched at the head of his flock, only stopping every now and then to say to the weeping girl at his side:

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**Who acts:** shepherd · **What happens:** blow, march, stop, say · **To what, where:** pipes, head, every, weeping girl, side · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd), 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:pg2435:9:24
# text = Merrily the shepherd blew on his pipes as he marched at the head of his flock, only stopping every now and then to say to the weeping girl at his side:
1	Merrily	merrily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	blew	blow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	pipes	pipe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	marched	march	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	flock	flock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	only	only	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	stopping	stop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
20	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	obj	_	_
21	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	19	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **blow** | past | the shepherd |  |  | shepherd's pipes |  | merrily *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **march** | past | shepherd |  |  | the head of shepherd's flock |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at head=Trajectory |
| 3 | **stop** | gerund | shepherd *not said here* | every |  |  | now |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality every=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | shepherd *not said here* |  | the weeping girl | shepherd's side |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to girl=Recipient |

<!-- .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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