---
title: It was a moonlight night, and as he rode down the road he could see… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a moonlight night, and as he rode down the road he could see his own shadow travelling along beside him. Who acts: horseback, Boy. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., sentence 49

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It was a moonlight night, and as he rode down the road he could see his own shadow travelling along beside him.

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**Who acts:** horseback, Boy · **What happens:** be, ride down, see, travel, shadow · **To what, where:** moonlight night, road, own shadow

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (horseback, Boy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:7:49
# text = It was a moonlight night, and as he rode down the road he could see his own shadow travelling along beside him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	travelling	travel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
21	along	along	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | horseback | a moonlight night |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ride down** | past | Boy | the road |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | could | Boy | Boy's own shadow |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shadow=Stimulus |
| 4 | **travel** | gerund | Boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | beside Boy; along *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beside he=Trajectory |
| 5 | **shadow** |  | Boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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