---
title: He thought on the whole that it would be wiser not to wait longer, b… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought on the whole that it would be wiser not to wait longer, but to depart at once, and he started on horseback at the very moment when the princess had been found by her followers, wet to the skin, and blown against a rick. Who acts: king, wind, followers. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought on the whole that it would be wiser not to wait longer, but to depart at once, and he started on horseback at the very moment when the princess had been found by her followers, wet to the skin, and blown against a rick.

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**Who acts:** king, wind, followers · **What happens:** think, be, not wait, depart, start, find · **To what, where:** horseback, princess

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, wind, followers), 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:pg5615:30:8
# text = He thought on the whole that it would be wiser not to wait longer, but to depart at once, and he started on horseback at the very moment when the princess had been found by her followers, wet to the skin, and blown against a rick.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	conj	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	wait	wait	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
14	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	depart	depart	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	horseback	horseback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	very	very	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
31	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	36	mark	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj:pass	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	advcl	_	_
37	by	by	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	followers	follower	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
41	wet	wet	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
47	blown	blow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
48	against	against	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
49	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	rick	rick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	47	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | king |  |  |  |  | whole *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | would | wind |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **wait** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **depart** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **start** | past | king |  |  | horseback | moment |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 6 | **find** | past · perfect · passive | princess's followers | the princess |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic |
| 7 | **blow** | participle | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | against a rick | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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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