---
title: The flute-player was good-naturedly just going to pick it up, when h… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The flute-player was good-naturedly just going to pick it up, when he perceived that the little dwarf was in the act of springing on his back. Who acts: flute player, man, little dwarf, act. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The flute-player was good-naturedly just going to pick it up, when he perceived that the little dwarf was in the act of springing on his back.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** flute player, man, little dwarf, act · **What happens:** go, pick up, perceive, be, spring · **To what, where:** player, act, back

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flute player, man, little dwarf, act), 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:pg7277:55:38
# text = The flute-player was good-naturedly just going to pick it up, when he perceived that the little dwarf was in the act of springing on his back.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	player	player	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
6	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	naturedly	naturedly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	just	just	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	dwarf	dwarf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	cop	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	act	act	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	advcl	_	_
27	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
28	springing	spring	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	26	acl	_	_
29	on	on	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · progressive | the flute player |  |  |  |  | naturedly *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **pick up** | to-infinitive | the flute player *not said here* | player |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 3 | **perceive** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | the little dwarf |  |  | the act |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **spring** | gerund | the act *not said here* |  |  | man's back |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on back=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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