---
title: Once, long ago, in a little town that lay in the midst of high hills… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once, long ago, in a little town that lay in the midst of high hills and wild forests, a party of shepherds sat one night in the kitchen of the inn talking over old times, and telling of the strange things that had befallen them in their youth. Who acts: little town, party, inn, strange things. A se
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 64

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Once, long ago, in a little town that lay in the midst of high hills and wild forests, a party of shepherds sat one night in the kitchen of the inn talking over old times, and telling of the strange things that had befallen them in their youth.

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**Who acts:** little town, party, inn, strange things · **What happens:** lie, sit, talk, tell, befall · **To what, where:** midst, little town, things, youth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little town, party, inn, strange things), 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:pg2435:15:64
# text = Once, long ago, in a little town that lay in the midst of high hills and wild forests, a party of shepherds sat one night in the kitchen of the inn talking over old times, and telling of the strange things that had befallen them in their youth.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
4	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	party	party	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	shepherds	shepherd	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
26	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nummod	_	_
28	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	inn	inn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
35	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	acl	_	_
36	over	over	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	41	cc	_	_
41	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obl	_	_
46	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	nsubj	_	_
47	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux	_	_
48	befallen	befall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	45	acl:relcl	_	_
49	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	in	in	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | a little town |  |  | the midst of high hills and wild forests |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in midst=Location |
| 2 | **sit** | past | a party of shepherds |  |  | a little town | night | in the kitchen of the inn; ago *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in town=Location |
| 3 | **talk** | gerund | the inn *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | a party of shepherds *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of the strange things | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **befall** | past · perfect | the strange things | things *= thing* |  | things's youth |  |  | tree rules |

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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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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