---
title: He took the first path that presented itself and followed it at the… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He took the first path that presented itself and followed it at the top of his speed, often losing his way, or stumbling over some stone, or running up against a tree, and leaving behind him without regret the cottage which had been as little to his taste as the character of its possessor. Who acts:
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 1, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He took the first path that presented itself and followed it at the top of his speed, often losing his way, or stumbling over some stone, or running up against a tree, and leaving behind him without regret the cottage which had been as little to his taste as the character of its possessor.

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**Who acts:** Prince, first path, cottage · **What happens:** take, present, follow, lose, stumble, run up · **To what, where:** first path, path, top, way, stone, tree

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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 (Prince, first path, cottage), 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:pg7277:36:65
# text = He took the first path that presented itself and followed it at the top of his speed, often losing his way, or stumbling over some stone, or running up against a tree, and leaving behind him without regret the cottage which had been as little to his taste as the character of its possessor.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	5	amod	_	_
5	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	presented	present	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
8	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	speed	speed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
19	often	often	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	losing	lose	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	stumbling	stumble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	28	det	_	_
28	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	conj	_	_
32	up	up	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	against	against	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
38	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
39	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obl	_	_
41	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	42	mark	_	_
42	regret	regret	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	cottage	cottage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	49	nsubj	_	_
46	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	aux	_	_
47	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	49	cop	_	_
48	as	as	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
49	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	acl:relcl	_	_
50	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	taste	taste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obl	_	_
53	as	as	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod	_	_
56	of	of	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
57	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	possessor	possessor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	55	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Prince | the first path |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |
| 2 | **present** | past | the first path | path |  |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | past | the first path *not said here* | path |  | the top of Prince's speed |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme at top=Trajectory |
| 4 | **lose** | gerund | Prince *not said here* | Prince's way |  |  |  | often *property* | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality |
| 5 | **stumble** | gerund | Prince *not said here* |  |  | some stone |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over stone=Trajectory |
| 6 | **run up** | gerund | Prince *not said here* |  |  | a tree |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against tree=Trajectory |
| 7 | **leave** | gerund | Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | behind Prince | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent behind he=Location |
| 8 | **regret** | present | Prince *not said here* | the cottage |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer cottage=Stimulus |
| 9 | **is** | past · perfect | the cottage |  |  |  |  | to Prince's taste as the character of way's possessor; little *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **taste** |  | Prince |  |  |  |  | as the character of way's possessor | nom taste «cognition transitive»: poss=agent as=obl |

<!-- .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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