---
title: At first he was puzzled, as there seemed no reason he should go in o… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first he was puzzled, as there seemed no reason he should go in one direction more than another. Who acts: thing. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, In the Land of Souls (21), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, In the Land of Souls (21), sentence 11

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At first he was puzzled, as there seemed no reason he should go in one direction more than another.

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**Who acts:** thing · **What happens:** puzzle, seem, go · **To what, where:** thing, reason, one direction

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, In the Land of Souls (21). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thing), 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:pg640:28:11
# text = At first he was puzzled, as there seemed no reason he should go in one direction more than another.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	puzzled	puzzle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
10	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	11	det	_	_
11	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
17	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
18	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	amod	_	_
19	than	than	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **puzzle** | past · passive |  | thing |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **seem** | past |  | no reason |  | there |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme reason=Attribute |
| 3 | **go** | should | thing | no reason *not said here* |  | one direction |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location reason=Theme |

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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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