--- title: The Magician’s servants hurried after the fresh tracks, but when the… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: The Magician’s servants hurried after the fresh tracks, but when they came to the bridge, they stood, not knowing which road to take, as the footprints stopped suddenly, and there were three paths for them to choose from. Who acts: servants, footprints, three paths, paths. A sentence of «The Green F --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/28/37/) [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 Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Biter Bit, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/28/) / 37 # The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 37 The Magician’s servants hurried after the fresh tracks, but when they came to the bridge, they stood, not knowing which road to take, as the footprints stopped suddenly, and there were three paths for them to choose from. **Who acts:** servants, footprints, three paths, paths · **What happens:** hurry, come, stand, not know, take, stop · **To what, where:** bridge, road This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants, footprints, three paths, paths), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg7277:28:37 # text = The Magician’s servants hurried after the fresh tracks, but when they came to the bridge, they stood, not knowing which road to take, as the footprints stopped suddenly, and there were three paths for them to choose from. 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 Magician magician NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 3 ’s 's PART POS _ 2 case _ _ 4 servants servant NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 nsubj _ _ 5 hurried hurry VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 after after ADP IN _ 9 case _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 9 det _ _ 8 fresh fresh ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 9 amod _ _ 9 tracks track NOUN NNS Number=Plur 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 10 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 11 but but CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ _ 12 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 14 advmod _ _ 13 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 14 nsubj _ _ 14 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 advcl _ _ 15 to to ADP IN _ 17 case _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 bridge bridge NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 19 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 stood stand VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 21 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 22 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 23 advmod _ _ 23 knowing know VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 20 advcl _ _ 24 which which DET WDT PronType=Int 25 det _ _ 25 road road NOUN NN Number=Sing 23 obj _ _ 26 to to PART TO _ 27 mark _ _ 27 take take VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 25 acl _ SpaceAfter=No 28 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 29 as as SCONJ IN _ 32 mark _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 footprints footprint NOUN NNS Number=Plur 32 nsubj _ _ 32 stopped stop VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 20 conj _ _ 33 suddenly suddenly ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 35 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 36 there there PRON EX PronType=Dem 37 expl _ _ 37 were be VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 conj _ _ 38 three three NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 39 nummod _ _ 39 paths path NOUN NNS Number=Plur 37 nsubj _ _ 40 for for SCONJ IN _ 43 mark _ _ 41 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 43 nsubj _ _ 42 to to PART TO _ 43 mark _ _ 43 choose choose VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 39 acl _ _ 44 from from ADP IN _ 43 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 45 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **hurry** | past | the Magician's servants | | | | after the fresh tracks | | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **come** | past | servants *= servant* | | | the bridge | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bridge=Initial\_Location | | 3 | **stand** | past | servants *= servant* | | | | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **not** **know** | gerund | servants *= servant* *not said here* | which road | | | | | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer road=Stimulus | | 5 | **take** | to-infinitive | servants *= servant* *not said here* | which road *not said here* | | | | | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **stop** | past | the footprints | | | | | suddenly *property* | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | | 7 | **be** | past | three paths | | | there | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 8 | **choose** | to-infinitive | paths *= path* | | | | | | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/28/36/) - next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/28/38/) - ↑ back to [The Biter Bit, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/28/)