---
title: For a long time they wandered hither and thither, for they had no pa… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: For a long time they wandered hither and thither, for they had no path to guide them; but at last they came upon a wide clearing, in the midst of which stood a castle. Who acts: bits, midst. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 19, sentence 121

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
For a long time they wandered hither and thither, for they had no path to guide them; but at last they came upon a wide clearing, in the midst of which stood a castle.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bits, midst · **What happens:** wander, have, guide, come, stand · **To what, where:** path, bits, last, castle

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bits, midst), 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:pg3027:19:121
# text = For a long time they wandered hither and thither, for they had no path to guide them; but at last they came upon a wide clearing, in the midst of which stood a castle.
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	hither	hither	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	thither	thither	ADV	RB	_	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	guide	guide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	obl	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	wide	wide	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	clearing	clearing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
33	of	of	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
35	stood	stand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	acl:relcl	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wander** | past | bits *= bit* |  |  |  | time | hither *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | past | bits *= bit* | no path |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Patient |
| 3 | **guide** | to-infinitive | bits *= bit* *not said here* | bits *= bit* |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **come** | past | bits *= bit* |  |  | last |  | upon a wide clearing; in the midst | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at last=Location |
| 5 | **stand** | past | the midst | a castle |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer castle=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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