---
title: For this cause he was continually walking backwards and forwards, th… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For this cause he was continually walking backwards and forwards, thinking how he could contrive to get her, and yet do nothing that was unkind to her sister. Who acts: Minnikin. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 3, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For this cause he was continually walking backwards and forwards, thinking how he could contrive to get her, and yet do nothing that was unkind to her sister.

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**Who acts:** Minnikin · **What happens:** walk, think, contrive, get, do, be · **To what, where:** Princess, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Minnikin), 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:pg540:46:53
# text = For this cause he was continually walking backwards and forwards, thinking how he could contrive to get her, and yet do nothing that was unkind to her sister.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	continually	continually	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	backwards	backwards	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	contrive	contrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
24	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	23	obj	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	unkind	unkind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	acl:relcl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | past · progressive | Minnikin |  |  |  |  | for this cause; backwards, continually *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund | Minnikin *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **contrive** | could | Minnikin |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | to-infinitive | Minnikin *not said here* | Princess |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | present | Minnikin *not said here* | nothing |  |  | yet |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | to Princess's sister; unkind *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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