---
title: The women and children ran by his side, weeping and trying to drag t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The women and children ran by his side, weeping and trying to drag the sack from off his back, but he shook them off, and went on his way. Who acts: women, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, A Tale of the Tontlawald, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The women and children ran by his side, weeping and trying to drag the sack from off his back, but he shook them off, and went on his way.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** women, man · **What happens:** run, try, drag, shake off, go · **To what, where:** sack, back, women, way

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Tale of the Tontlawald. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women, man), 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:pg641:2:8
# text = The women and children ran by his side, weeping and trying to drag the sack from off his back, but he shook them off, and went on his way.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
5	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	weeping	weeping	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	off	off	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	shook	shake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	off	off	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | past | the women and children |  |  |  |  | by man's side | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by side=Trajectory |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | the women and children *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **drag** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the women and children *not said here* | the sack |  | man's back |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent sack=Theme from back=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **shake off** | past | man | women *= woman* |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 5 | **go** | past | the women and children *not said here* |  |  | man's way |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on way=Location |

<!-- .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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