---
title: One day he was sitting disconsolately at a cross road, when a man su… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day he was sitting disconsolately at a cross road, when a man suddenly appeared before him with three black dogs, each one bigger than the other. Who acts: fortune, man. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Dogs, sentence 6

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One day he was sitting disconsolately at a cross road, when a man suddenly appeared before him with three black dogs, each one bigger than the other.

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**Who acts:** fortune, man · **What happens:** sit, appear · **To what, where:** cross road

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fortune, man), 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:pg7277:56:6
# text = One day he was sitting disconsolately at a cross road, when a man suddenly appeared before him with three black dogs, each one bigger than the other.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	disconsolately	disconsolately	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	cross	cross	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	16	mark	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	before	before	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
21	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	acl:relcl	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past · progressive | fortune |  |  | a cross road | day | disconsolately *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at road=Location |
| 2 | **appear** | past | a man |  |  |  | before fortune | with three black dogs; suddenly *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before he=Location |

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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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