---
title: And while he was still a long way off he saw a woman going into the… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And while he was still a long way off he saw a woman going into the house with wood on her shoulders. Who acts: husband, woman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dead Wife(20), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dead Wife(20), sentence 14

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And while he was still a long way off he saw a woman going into the house with wood on her shoulders.

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**Who acts:** husband, woman · **What happens:** be, see, go · **To what, where:** long way, woman, house

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dead Wife(20). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (husband, woman), 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:pg640:27:14
# text = And while he was still a long way off he saw a woman going into the house with wood on her shoulders.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	still	still	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
15	into	into	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | husband | a long way |  |  | still |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **see** | past | husband | a woman |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | gerund | a woman *not said here* |  |  | the house with wood |  | on woman's shoulders | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into house=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 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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