---
title: And the shepherd chose out the largest and fattest of the sheep and… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And the shepherd chose out the largest and fattest of the sheep and the one with the whitest fleece; then he tied its feet together and put it across his shoulder, for he had a long way to go. Who acts: shepherd. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/20/)

<!-- 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 Lilac Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/) / [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/) / 20

# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the shepherd chose out the largest and fattest of the sheep and the one with the whitest fleece; then he tied its feet together and put it across his shoulder, for he had a long way to go.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** shepherd · **What happens:** choose out, tie, put, have, go · **To what, where:** feet, fleece, shoulder, long way

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd), 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:pg3454:2:20
# text = And the shepherd chose out the largest and fattest of the sheep and the one with the whitest fleece; then he tied its feet together and put it across his shoulder, for he had a long way to go.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	out	out	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	largest	large	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	9	amod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	fattest	fat	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	advcl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	whitest	white	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	19	amod	_	_
19	fleece	fleece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
21	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	tied	tie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
24	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	together	together	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	across	across	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
40	to	to	PART	TO	_	41	mark	_	_
41	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose out** | past | the shepherd |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tie** | past | shepherd | fleece's feet |  |  | then | together *property* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient |
| 3 | **put** | infinitive | shepherd *not said here* | fleece |  | shepherd's shoulder |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent it=Goal |
| 4 | **have** | past | shepherd | a long way |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 5 | **go** | to-infinitive | shepherd *not said here* | a long way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/19/)
- next →: [sentence 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/21/)
- ↑ back to [The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/2/)