---
title: But the jackal had been very cunning, and had trotted backwards and… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the jackal had been very cunning, and had trotted backwards and forwards and in and out, so that it was very difficult to know which track he had really followed. Who acts: jackal, track. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 17, sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the jackal had been very cunning, and had trotted backwards and forwards and in and out, so that it was very difficult to know which track he had really followed.

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**Who acts:** jackal, track · **What happens:** be, trot, know, follow · **To what, where:** track, Jackal

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (jackal, track), 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:pg3027:17:129
# text = But the jackal had been very cunning, and had trotted backwards and forwards and in and out, so that it was very difficult to know which track he had really followed.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	jackal	jackal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	trotted	trot	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
12	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	in	in	ADV	RB	_	14	conj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	out	out	ADV	RB	_	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	expl	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	very	very	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	csubj	_	_
28	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	29	det	_	_
29	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	really	really	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · perfect | the jackal |  |  |  |  | cunning *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **trot** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | backwards, forwards *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | to-infinitive |  | which track |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer track=Stimulus |
| 5 | **follow** | past · perfect · passive | which track *not said here* | Jackal |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: subject=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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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