---
title: His task was not quite so easy as it looked, for the cows had a way… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: His task was not quite so easy as it looked, for the cows had a way of straying into the wood, and by the time he had brought one back another was off. Who acts: task, cows, way, Peronnik. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree an
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/26/107/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His task was not quite so easy as it looked, for the cows had a way of straying into the wood, and by the time he had brought one back another was off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** task, cows, way, Peronnik · **What happens:** not be, look, have, stray, bring back, task · **To what, where:** way, wood, one

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (task, cows, way, Peronnik), 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:pg3454:26:107
# text = His task was not quite so easy as it looked, for the cows had a way of straying into the wood, and by the time he had brought one back another was off.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	straying	stray	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	by	by	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	obj	_	_
32	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
33	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	conj	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	off	off	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | Peronnik's task |  |  |  |  | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | task |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | past | the cows | a way |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient |
| 4 | **stray** | gerund | a way *not said here* |  |  | the wood |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into wood=Destination |
| 5 | **bring back** | past · perfect | Peronnik | one |  |  | time |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 6 | **task** |  | Peronnik |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: 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.

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**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.

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