---
title: When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his ho… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to go. Who acts: Désiré, servants, prudent man, horse. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to go.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Désiré, servants, prudent man, horse · **What happens:** think, catch, pull, know, have, go · **To what, where:** Désiré, horse, walk · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Désiré, servants, prudent man, horse), 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:pg540:40:35
# text = When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to go.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Désiré	Désiré	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	no	no	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
8	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	pulled	pull	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	walk	walk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	prudent	prudent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
24	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	has	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
27	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Désiré |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **catch** | could | servants *= servant* | Désiré |  |  |  | long *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **pull** | past | Désiré | Désiré's horse |  | a walk |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent horse=Result |
| 4 | **know** | present | a prudent man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **have** | present | horse |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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