---
title: There was not a sign of anyone or anything, so he started for the ri… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was not a sign of anyone or anything, so he started for the river, where he saw Ball Carrier sitting quietly on the other side. Who acts: sign, Ball Carrier. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7, sentence 61

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There was not a sign of anyone or anything, so he started for the river, where he saw Ball Carrier sitting quietly on the other side.

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**Who acts:** sign, Ball Carrier · **What happens:** not be, start, see, sit, sign · **To what, where:** Ball Carrier, other side, anyone

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sign, Ball Carrier), 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:pg3282:7:61
# text = There was not a sign of anyone or anything, so he started for the river, where he saw Ball Carrier sitting quietly on the other side.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	nmod	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	20	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
21	Ball	Ball	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	Carrier	Carrier	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	20	xcomp	_	_
24	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **be** | past | a sign of anyone |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **start** | past | sign |  |  |  |  | for the river | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 3 | **see** | past | sign | Ball Carrier |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **sit** | gerund | Ball Carrier *not said here* |  |  | the other side |  | quietly *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on side=Location |
| 5 | **sign** |  |  | anyone |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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