---
title: But, one by one, his comrades dropped off at the places where they h… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, one by one, his comrades dropped off at the places where they had first met him, and he was quite alone when he reached his native town and the gates of the palace. Who acts: one, comrades, boy. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, with its depende
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23, sentence 74

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, one by one, his comrades dropped off at the places where they had first met him, and he was quite alone when he reached his native town and the gates of the palace.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** one, comrades, boy · **What happens:** drop off, meet, be · **To what, where:** places, boy

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 23. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (one, comrades, boy), 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:pg3282:23:74
# text = But, one by one, his comrades dropped off at the places where they had first met him, and he was quite alone when he reached his native town and the gates of the palace.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nsubj	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	comrades	comrade	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	advmod	_	_
18	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
24	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	gates	gate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	conj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop off** | past | one by one |  |  | the places |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme at place=Trajectory |
| 2 | **meet** | past · perfect | comrades *= comrade* | boy |  |  |  | first *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | boy |  |  |  |  | alone, reach *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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