---
title: He did not know which to choose, and tossed his cap in the air, dete… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He did not know which to choose, and tossed his cap in the air, determining that the direction of its fall should decide him. Who acts: man, direction. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 6

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He did not know which to choose, and tossed his cap in the air, determining that the direction of its fall should decide him.

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**Who acts:** man, direction · **What happens:** not know, choose, toss, determine, decide · **To what, where:** cap, air, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, direction), 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:pg7277:21:6
# text = He did not know which to choose, and tossed his cap in the air, determining that the direction of its fall should decide him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	tossed	toss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	cap	cap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	determining	determine	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	fall	fall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	decide	decide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **choose** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **toss** | past |  | man's cap |  | the air |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent cap=Theme in air=Destination |
| 4 | **determine** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **decide** | should | the direction of direction's fall | man |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent he=Topic |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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