---
title: He was now obliged to trust to his own legs, and after walking a lon… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was now obliged to trust to his own legs, and after walking a long way he reached a big town. Who acts: youth. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The White Snake, sentence 38

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He was now obliged to trust to his own legs, and after walking a long way he reached a big town.

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**Who acts:** youth · **What happens:** oblige, trust, walk, reach · **To what, where:** youth, own legs, long way, big town

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The White Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (youth), 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:pg7277:50:38
# text = He was now obliged to trust to his own legs, and after walking a long way he reached a big town.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	trust	trust	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
14	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | youth |  |  | now |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 2 | **trust** | to-infinitive |  |  | youth's own legs |  |  |  | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to leg=Recipient |
| 3 | **walk** | gerund | youth *not said here* | a long way |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme way=Trajectory |
| 4 | **reach** | past | youth | a big town |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent town=Theme |

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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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