---
title: The young fellow thought this was a good idea, and he went off quiet… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: The young fellow thought this was a good idea, and he went off quietly down the staircase, until he detected what he thought was a white stone lying near the foot of the steps. Who acts: young fellow, this, fellow, white stone. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/7/76/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulm…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/7/) / 76

# Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman., sentence 76

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The young fellow thought this was a good idea, and he went off quietly down the staircase, until he detected what he thought was a white stone lying near the foot of the steps.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** young fellow, this, fellow, white stone · **What happens:** think, be, go off, detect, lie · **To what, where:** good idea, white stone, foot · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (young fellow, this, fellow, white stone), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:7:76
# text = The young fellow thought this was a good idea, and he went off quietly down the staircase, until he detected what he thought was a white stone lying near the foot of the steps.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	idea	idea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
14	off	off	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
15	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	down	down	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	staircase	staircase	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	detected	detect	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	nsubj	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	ccomp	_	_
30	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	near	near	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the young fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | this | a good idea |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go off** | past | fellow |  |  |  |  | down the staircase; quietly *property* | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **detect** | past | fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | past | fellow |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is a** | past |  | a white stone |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 7 | **lie** | gerund | a white stone *not said here* |  |  | the foot of the steps |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near foot=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/7/75/)
- next →: [sentence 77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/7/77/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Foolish Young Mussulman.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/7/)