---
title: When he was a little better he rose and walked down a road till he m… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he was a little better he rose and walked down a road till he met a grouse, who stopped and asked what was the matter. Who acts: salmon, grouse. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, 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/pg3282/27/83/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/27/) / 83

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27, sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he was a little better he rose and walked down a road till he met a grouse, who stopped and asked what was the matter.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** salmon, grouse · **What happens:** be, rise, walk down, meet, stop, ask · **To what, where:** road, grouse, matter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (salmon, grouse), 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:pg3282:27:83
# text = When he was a little better he rose and walked down a road till he met a grouse, who stopped and asked what was the matter.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	_
6	better	well	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
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	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	grouse	grouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	stopped	stop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | a little *obl*; well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **rise** | past | salmon | a road |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **walk down** | past | salmon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **meet** | past | salmon | a grouse |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grouse=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **stop** | past | a grouse |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a grouse *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/27/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/27/84/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/27/)