---
title: Sometimes he would meet with a young man bent on the same business a… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes he would meet with a young man bent on the same business as himself, and then they would fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was the stronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be a robber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and then the battle w
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 166

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Sometimes he would meet with a young man bent on the same business as himself, and then they would fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was the stronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be a robber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and then the battle was in deadly earnest.

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**Who acts:** boy, adventures, enemy, robber, battle · **What happens:** meet, bend, fight, prove, be, turn out · **To what, where:** young man, same business, friendly manner, other occasions, robber, terror

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, adventures, enemy, robber), 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:pg641:4:166
# text = Sometimes he would meet with a young man bent on the same business as himself, and then they would fight in a friendly manner, merely to prove which was the stronger, but on other occasions the enemy would turn out to be a robber, who had become the terror of the neighbourhood, and then the battle was in deadly earnest.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	4	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	as	as	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	fight	fight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	manner	manner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	prove	prove	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
30	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
35	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	occasions	occasion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	obl	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
41	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
43	out	out	ADP	RP	_	42	compound:prt	_	_
44	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
45	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	cop	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	robber	robber	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
49	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	51	nsubj	_	_
50	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	aux	_	_
51	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	47	acl:relcl	_	_
52	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	terror	terror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	xcomp	_	_
54	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	neighbourhood	neighbourhood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	53	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	65	punct	_	_
58	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	65	cc	_	_
59	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	65	advmod	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	battle	battle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	65	nsubj	_	_
62	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	65	cop	_	_
63	in	in	ADP	IN	_	65	case	_	_
64	deadly	deadly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	65	amod	_	_
65	earnest	earn	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	47	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | would | boy |  |  |  |  | with a young man; sometimes *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with man=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **bend** | participle |  | a young man *not said here* |  | the same business as boy |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on business=Location |
| 3 | **fight** | would | adventures *= adventure* |  |  | a friendly manner | then |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **prove** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | merely *property* | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **turn out** | would | the enemy |  |  | other occasions |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on occasion=Location |
| 7 | **is a** | to-infinitive | the enemy *not said here* | a robber |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **become** | past · perfect | a robber | the terror of the neighbourhood |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **is** | past | the battle |  |  |  | then | earn *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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