---
title: Then off he went, running hard, and when the mourners saw a man comi… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then off he went, running hard, and when the mourners saw a man coming towards them with nothing on but his nightshirt, they forgot in their fright what they were there for, and fled to hide themselves. Who acts: man, mourners. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Boo
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 70

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then off he went, running hard, and when the mourners saw a man coming towards them with nothing on but his nightshirt, they forgot in their fright what they were there for, and fled to hide themselves.

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**Who acts:** man, mourners · **What happens:** go, run, see, come, forget, be · **To what, where:** man, fright, mourners

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, mourners), 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:pg3454:36:70
# text = Then off he went, running hard, and when the mourners saw a man coming towards them with nothing on but his nightshirt, they forgot in their fright what they were there for, and fled to hide themselves.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	off	off	ADP	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
7	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mourners	mourner	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
17	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	obl	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	nightshirt	nightshirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	forgot	forget	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	fright	fright	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	34	nsubj	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
34	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	parataxis	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	fled	flee	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
39	to	to	PART	TO	_	40	mark	_	_
40	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	38	xcomp	_	_
41	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | man |  |  |  | then |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **run** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | the mourners | a man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** | gerund | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards mourners *= mourner*; with nothing | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards they=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **forget** | past | mourners *= mourner* |  |  | mourners's fright |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **flee** | past | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **hide** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | mourners *= mourner* |  |  |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient |
| 9 | **fright** |  | mourners *= mourner* |  |  |  |  |  | nom fright «feeling 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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