---
title: While passing that desert he had to journey for a couple of days thr… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: While passing that desert he had to journey for a couple of days through a sandy plain, with no signs of life or vegetation. Who acts: DEATH. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 8, sentence 15

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While passing that desert he had to journey for a couple of days through a sandy plain, with no signs of life or vegetation.

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**Who acts:** DEATH · **What happens:** pass, have, sign · **To what, where:** desert, journey, sandy plain, life

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (DEATH), 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:pg7128:14:15
# text = While passing that desert he had to journey for a couple of days through a sandy plain, with no signs of life or vegetation.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	passing	pass	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	couple	couple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	sandy	sandy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	plain	plain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	vegetation	vegetation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | gerund | DEATH *not said here* | that desert |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme desert=Trajectory |
| 2 | **have** | past | DEATH | journey |  | a sandy plain and no signs of life or vegetation |  | for a couple of days | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent journey=Patient |
| 3 | **sign** |  |  | life or vegetation |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (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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