---
title: Then he saw some people knocking down walnuts, and trying to throw t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he saw some people knocking down walnuts, and trying to throw them into a cart with a fork. Who acts: man, people. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Six Sillies, sentence 24

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Then he saw some people knocking down walnuts, and trying to throw them into a cart with a fork.

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**Who acts:** man, people · **What happens:** see, knock down, try, throw · **To what, where:** people, walnuts, cart

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, people), 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:pg540:28:24
# text = Then he saw some people knocking down walnuts, and trying to throw them into a cart with a fork.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	acl	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	walnuts	walnut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	cart	cart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	fork	fork	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | man | some people |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer people=Stimulus |
| 2 | **knock down** | gerund | some people *not said here* | walnuts |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent walnut=Patient |
| 3 | **try** | gerund | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **throw** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | people |  |  |  | into a cart *result*; with a fork | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer they=Theme into cart=Result |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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