---
title: But, by good fortune, a man was crossing the river on his way to his… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, by good fortune, a man was crossing the river on his way to his work, and saw in a moment what had happened. Who acts: good fortune, moment, man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/91/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/) / 91

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 9, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, by good fortune, a man was crossing the river on his way to his work, and saw in a moment what had happened.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** good fortune, moment, man · **What happens:** cross, see, happen, work · **To what, where:** river, way

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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 (good fortune, moment, man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3027:9:91
# text = But, by good fortune, a man was crossing the river on his way to his work, and saw in a moment what had happened.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fortune	fortune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	nsubj	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | past · progressive | good fortune | the river |  | man's way to man's work |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 2 | **see** | past | good fortune *not said here* |  |  |  | moment |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect | a moment |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **work** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/90/)
- next →: [sentence 92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/92/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/9/)