---
title: In the middle of a field they met the parson, and when he saw this p… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of a field they met the parson, and when he saw this procession he cried: ‘For shame, you bold girls! Who acts: goose, parson. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Goose, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Golden Goose, sentence 36

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In the middle of a field they met the parson, and when he saw this procession he cried: ‘For shame, you bold girls!

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**Who acts:** goose, parson · **What happens:** meet, see, cry · **To what, where:** parson, middle, procession

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Goose. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (goose, parson), 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:pg540:48:36
# text = In the middle of a field they met the parson, and when he saw this procession he cried: ‘For shame, you bold girls!
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	parson	parson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	det	_	_
17	procession	procession	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
21	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	For	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	shame	shame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	bold	bold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | goose | the parson |  | the middle of a field |  | bold girls *obl* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent parson=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | parson | this procession |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer procession=Stimulus |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | parson | this procession *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent procession=Topic |

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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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