---
title: Just as before, the shoemaker saw them a long way off, and began to… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Just as before, the shoemaker saw them a long way off, and began to think how he could outwit them again. Who acts: shoemaker, band. 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/pg5615/17/58/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Just as before, the shoemaker saw them a long way off, and began to think how he could outwit them again.

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**Who acts:** shoemaker, band · **What happens:** see, begin, think, outwit · **To what, where:** others · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (shoemaker, band), 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:pg5615:17:58
# text = Just as before, the shoemaker saw them a long way off, and began to think how he could outwit them again.
1	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	as	as	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	before	before	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	shoemaker	shoemaker	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	off	off	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	outwit	outwit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	ccomp	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	again	again	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | the shoemaker | others *= other* |  |  |  | a long way *obl:unmarked*; before *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the shoemaker *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | the shoemaker *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **outwit** | could | band | others *= other* |  |  | again |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot they=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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- ← previous: [sentence 57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/17/57/)
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