---
title: This he did several times, till the old man wondered what could be t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: This he did several times, till the old man wondered what could be the matter, and, picking up the spade, followed where the dog led him. Who acts: This, old man, picking, dog. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/18/6/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Envious Neighbour](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/18/) / 6

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Envious Neighbour, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This he did several times, till the old man wondered what could be the matter, and, picking up the spade, followed where the dog led him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, old man, picking, dog · **What happens:** do, wonder, be, pick up, follow, lead · **To what, where:** matter, spade, place

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Envious Neighbour. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, old man, picking, dog), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:18:6
# text = This he did several times, till the old man wondered what could be the matter, and, picking up the spade, followed where the dog led him.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	11	obj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	picking	pick	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	csubj:pass	_	_
21	up	up	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	spade	spade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
26	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	29	advmod	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
29	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | This |  |  |  | time |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | could |  | the matter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **pick up** | gerund |  | the spade |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spade=Topic |
| 5 | **follow** | participle | picking |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **lead** | past | the dog | place |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/18/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/18/7/)
- ↑ back to [The Envious Neighbour](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/18/)