---
title: He began by setting sail in a favourable wind, but his bad luck foll… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He began by setting sail in a favourable wind, but his bad luck followed him even on the sea. Who acts: sight, bad luck. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3, sentence 89

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He began by setting sail in a favourable wind, but his bad luck followed him even on the sea.

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**Who acts:** sight, bad luck · **What happens:** begin, set, follow · **To what, where:** sail, favourable wind, sight, sea

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sight, bad luck), 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:pg640:16:89
# text = He began by setting sail in a favourable wind, but his bad luck followed him even on the sea.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	setting	set	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
5	sail	sail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	favourable	favourable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	even	even	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | sight |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **set** | gerund | sight *not said here* | sail |  | a favourable wind |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sail=Theme in wind=Destination |
| 3 | **follow** | past | sight's bad luck | sight |  | the sea |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme on sea=Trajectory |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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