---
title: Luckily this idea occurred to him when he was on horseback, for he w… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Luckily this idea occurred to him when he was on horseback, for he would certainly have set out on foot rather than lose an instant. Who acts: idea, Vivien. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Luckily this idea occurred to him when he was on horseback, for he would certainly have set out on foot rather than lose an instant.

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**Who acts:** idea, Vivien · **What happens:** occur, be, set out, lose · **To what, where:** Vivien, horseback, foot, instant

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (idea, Vivien), 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:pg7277:36:13
# text = Luckily this idea occurred to him when he was on horseback, for he would certainly have set out on foot rather than lose an instant.
1	Luckily	luckily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	occurred	occur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	horseback	horseback	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
16	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	set	set	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	24	cc	_	_
23	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	fixed	_	_
24	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
25	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	instant	instant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occur** | past | this idea |  | Vivien |  |  | luckily *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | Vivien |  |  | horseback |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **set out** | would · perfect · passive |  | Vivien |  | foot |  | certainly *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **lose** | infinitive |  | a instant |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent instant=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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