---
title: There was no sign-post to direct them, and the people in the inn had… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was no sign-post to direct them, and the people in the inn had not told them which of the two roads to take. Who acts: sign post. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was no sign-post to direct them, and the people in the inn had not told them which of the two roads to take.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sign post · **What happens:** be, direct, not tell, take · **To what, where:** people, two roads · **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 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sign post), 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:pg2435:29:125
# text = There was no sign-post to direct them, and the people in the inn had not told them which of the two roads to take.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
4	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	post	post	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	direct	direct	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	inn	inn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	iobj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no sign post |  |  | there |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **direct** | to-infinitive | no sign post *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | past · perfect · passive |  | the people in the inn | the two roads |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient road=Topic |
| 4 | **take** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 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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