---
title: This they did, but no sooner had they walked a short distance than t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This they did, but no sooner had they walked a short distance than they met again. Who acts: This, feathers. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 1, sentence 80

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This they did, but no sooner had they walked a short distance than they met again.

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**Who acts:** This, feathers · **What happens:** do, walk, meet · **To what, where:** short distance

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, feathers), 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:pg540:44:80
# text = This they did, but no sooner had they walked a short distance than they met again.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	10	advmod	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	walked	walk	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
17	again	again	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | This |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **walk** | past | feathers *= feather* | a short distance |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme distance=Trajectory |
| 3 | **meet** | past | feathers *= feather* |  |  |  | again |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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