---
title: He waited thus, for he could go neither forwards nor backwards, till… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He waited thus, for he could go neither forwards nor backwards, till he felt a great friendly paw laid on his shoulder. Who acts: wind. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 86

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He waited thus, for he could go neither forwards nor backwards, till he felt a great friendly paw laid on his shoulder.

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**Who acts:** wind · **What happens:** wait, go, feel, lay · **To what, where:** great friendly paw, shoulder

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wind), 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:pg3027:30:86
# text = He waited thus, for he could go neither forwards nor backwards, till he felt a great friendly paw laid on his shoulder.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
9	neither	neither	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
11	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
12	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	paw	paw	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	laid	lay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	acl	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | past | wind |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | could | wind |  |  |  |  | forwards, neither *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **feel** | past | wind | a great friendly paw |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paw=Theme |
| 4 | **lay** | participle |  | a great friendly paw *not said here* |  | wind's shoulder |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on shoulder=Destination |

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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 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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