---
title: Instead of chatting with them in the dusk, he wandered about the woo… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Instead of chatting with them in the dusk, he wandered about the woods, whispering to the moon. Who acts: King. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Canary, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Canary, sentence 7

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Instead of chatting with them in the dusk, he wandered about the woods, whispering to the moon.

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**Who acts:** King · **What happens:** chat, wander, whisper · **To what, where:** moon

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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 (King), 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:pg540:40:7
# text = Instead of chatting with them in the dusk, he wandered about the woods, whispering to the moon.
1	Instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	3	mark	_	_
2	of	of	ADP	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	chatting	chat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	dusk	dusk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	woods	wood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	whispering	whisper	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	moon	moon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chat** *speech: other* | gerund | King *not said here* |  |  |  | dusk | with ladies *= lady* | vn chit\_chat-37.6 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with they=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **wander** | past | King |  |  |  |  | about the woods | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme about wood=Trajectory |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | gerund | King *not said here* |  | the moon |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to moon=Recipient |

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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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