---
title: Before crossing the bridge he sat down on the banks of the stream an… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Before crossing the bridge he sat down on the banks of the stream and sighed dismally over his sad fate. Who acts: bridge. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 81

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Before crossing the bridge he sat down on the banks of the stream and sighed dismally over his sad fate.

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**Who acts:** bridge · **What happens:** cross, sit down, sigh, fate · **To what, where:** bridge, banks, sad fate

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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 (bridge), 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:pg7277:29:81
# text = Before crossing the bridge he sat down on the banks of the stream and sighed dismally over his sad fate.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	banks	bank	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	sighed	sigh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
16	dismally	dismally	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	over	over	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cross** | gerund | bridge *not said here* | the bridge |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bridge=Patient |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | bridge |  |  | the banks of the stream |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bank=Location |
| 3 | **sigh** | past | bridge *not said here* |  |  | bridge's sad fate |  | dismally *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fate** |  | bridge |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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