---
title: Not long after the clerk came that way, and was much surprised to se… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Not long after the clerk came that way, and was much surprised to see the parson following the footsteps of three girls. Who acts: 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 41

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Not long after the clerk came that way, and was much surprised to see the parson following the footsteps of three girls.

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**Who acts:** parson · **What happens:** come, be, see, follow · **To what, where:** way, parson, footsteps

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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 (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:pg540:48:41
# text = Not long after the clerk came that way, and was much surprised to see the parson following the footsteps of three girls.
1	Not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
3	after	after	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	clerk	clerk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	det	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	much	much	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	surprised	surprised	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	parson	parson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	following	follow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	footsteps	footstep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	girls	girl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | that way |  |  | after the clerk | long *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | surprised *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | to-infinitive |  | the parson |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer parson=Stimulus |
| 4 | **follow** | gerund | the parson *not said here* | the footsteps of three girls |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent footstep=Theme |

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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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