---
title: But as he entered a thick wood he saw in the distance a band of robb… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But as he entered a thick wood he saw in the distance a band of robbers who were coming quickly towards him. Who acts: donkey, robbers. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/17/30/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 30

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But as he entered a thick wood he saw in the distance a band of robbers who were coming quickly towards him.

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**Who acts:** donkey, robbers · **What happens:** enter, see, come · **To what, where:** thick wood, band

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (donkey, robbers), 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:pg5615:17:30
# text = But as he entered a thick wood he saw in the distance a band of robbers who were coming quickly towards him.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	entered	enter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	band	band	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enter** | past | donkey | a thick wood |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wood=Destination |
| 2 | **see** | past | donkey | a band of robbers |  |  |  | in the distance | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer band=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | past · progressive | robbers |  |  |  |  | towards donkey; quickly *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial\_Location |

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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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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