---
title: What with the winter and bad roads they took longer to return than t… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: What with the winter and bad roads they took longer to return than they had taken to go, but in the end they found themselves in sight of the forest where they had slept before. Who acts: roads. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependen
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What with the winter and bad roads they took longer to return than they had taken to go, but in the end they found themselves in sight of the forest where they had slept before.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** roads · **What happens:** take, return, go, find, sleep, sight · **To what, where:** bad roads, roads, end, forest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (roads), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2435:30:85
# text = What with the winter and bad roads they took longer to return than they had taken to go, but in the end they found themselves in sight of the forest where they had slept before.
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
13	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
26	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
32	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	35	advmod	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	slept	sleep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	31	acl:relcl	_	_
36	before	before	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | roads *= road* | bad roads *not said here* |  |  |  | long *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme |
| 2 | **return** | to-infinitive | roads *= road* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect | roads *= road* |  |  |  |  |  | vn require-103 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 4 | **go** | to-infinitive | roads *= road* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | roads *= road* | roads *= road* |  |  | in the end | in sight of the forest | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Topic |
| 6 | **sleep** | past · perfect | roads *= road* |  |  |  |  | before *property* | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **sight** |  |  | the forest |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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