---
title: But as soon as he was out of sight the idiot sought in vain for trac… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as soon as he was out of sight the idiot sought in vain for traces of the path he had taken. Who acts: Peronnik, idiot. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 110

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But as soon as he was out of sight the idiot sought in vain for traces of the path he had taken.

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**Who acts:** Peronnik, idiot · **What happens:** be, seek, take · **To what, where:** sight, vain, path

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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 (Peronnik, idiot), 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:pg3454:26:110
# text = But as soon as he was out of sight the idiot sought in vain for traces of the path he had taken.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	as	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	idiot	idiot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	vain	vain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	traces	trace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Peronnik |  |  | sight |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **seek** | past | the idiot |  |  | vain |  | for traces of the path; soon *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in vain=Location for trace=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect | Peronnik | the path *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |

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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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