---
title: As he was walking down the road, he saw a man coming towards him, ca… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As he was walking down the road, he saw a man coming towards him, carrying a cage made of twigs. Who acts: man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As he was walking down the road, he saw a man coming towards him, carrying a cage made of twigs.

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**Who acts:** man · **What happens:** walk down, see, come, carry, make · **To what, where:** road, man, cage

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man), 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:pg641:15:6
# text = As he was walking down the road, he saw a man coming towards him, carrying a cage made of twigs.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
5	down	down	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	towards	towards	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cage	cage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	twigs	twig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk down** | past · progressive | man | the road |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme road=Trajectory |
| 2 | **see** | past | man | a man |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |
| 3 | **come** | gerund | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | towards man | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme towards he=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **carry** | gerund | man *not said here* | a cage |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cage=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | participle |  | a cage *not said here* |  |  |  | of twigs | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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