---
title: He was hesitating which to choose, when he suddenly beheld two peopl… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was hesitating which to choose, when he suddenly beheld two people coming towards him, down the track which lay most to his right. Who acts: Prince, two people, track. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4, sentence 73

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He was hesitating which to choose, when he suddenly beheld two people coming towards him, down the track which lay most to his right.

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**Who acts:** Prince, two people, track · **What happens:** hesitate, choose, behold, come, lie · **To what, where:** two people, track

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Grateful Beasts(11), part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, two people, track), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg640:1211`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg640:17:73
# text = He was hesitating which to choose, when he suddenly beheld two people coming towards him, down the track which lay most to his right.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	hesitating	hesitate	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Int	6	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	beheld	behold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
12	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl	_	_
15	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	down	down	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	26	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hesitate** | past · progressive | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **choose** | to-infinitive | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Theme |
| 3 | **behold** | past | Prince | two people |  |  |  | suddenly *property* | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer people=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** | gerund | two people *not said here* |  |  | the track |  | towards Prince | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial\_Location down track=Destination |
| 5 | **lie** | past | the track |  |  |  |  | to Prince's right | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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