---
title: Now it chanced that the way to the capital led right past the villag… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Now it chanced that the way to the capital led right past the village where Helena was, and often when she was leading her cattle forth to the meadows Prince Fickle rode past her, without ever noticing the poor herd-girl, so engrossed was he in thoughts of his new bride. Who acts: news, way, Helena,
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/28/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/) / 28

# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Now it chanced that the way to the capital led right past the village where Helena was, and often when she was leading her cattle forth to the meadows Prince Fickle rode past her, without ever noticing the poor herd-girl, so engrossed was he in thoughts of his new bride.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** news, way, Helena, Prince · **What happens:** chance, lead, ride, notice, engross, be · **To what, where:** village, cattle, meadows, poor herd girl, thoughts

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (news, way, Helena, Prince), 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:pg7277:29:28
# text = Now it chanced that the way to the capital led right past the village where Helena was, and often when she was leading her cattle forth to the meadows Prince Fickle rode past her, without ever noticing the poor herd-girl, so engrossed was he in thoughts of his new bride.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chanced	chance	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	capital	capital	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	led	lead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
11	right	right	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	past	past	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
15	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	17	advmod	_	_
16	Helena	Helena	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	often	often	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
25	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	meadows	meadow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
31	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
32	Fickle	Fickle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	flat	_	_
33	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
34	past	past	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	39	advmod	_	_
39	noticing	notice	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
41	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
42	herd	herd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
46	so	so	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	engrossed	engross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
48	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	cop	_	_
49	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	nsubj	_	_
50	in	in	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	_
52	of	of	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
53	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	55	nmod:poss	_	_
54	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	bride	bride	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chance** | past | news |  |  |  | now |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lead** | past | the way to the capital | the village |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent village=Theme |
| 3 | **lead** | past · progressive | Helena | Helena's cattle |  | the meadows |  | forth, often *property* | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent cattle=Theme to meadow=Destination |
| 4 | **ride** | past | Prince | the meadows *not said here* |  |  |  | past Helena | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent meadow=Theme past she=Trajectory |
| 5 | **notice** | gerund | Prince *not said here* | the poor herd girl |  |  | ever |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer girl=Stimulus |
| 6 | **engross** | past | news *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 7 | **is** | past | Prince |  |  | thoughts |  | of Prince's new bride | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/27/)
- next →: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/29/)
- ↑ back to [The Biter Bit, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/29/)