---
title: A long, long while ago, before ever the White Men were seen in Senna… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A long, long while ago, before ever the White Men were seen in Senna, there lived a man called Gopani-Kufa. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/42/)

<!-- 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/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/) / 42

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 2, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A long, long while ago, before ever the White Men were seen in Senna, there lived a man called Gopani-Kufa.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** see, live, call · **To what, where:** White Men, man, Senna · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg3027:2:42
# text = A long, long while ago, before ever the White Men were seen in Senna, there lived a man called Gopani-Kufa.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
8	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
9	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	Senna	Senna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	19	expl	_	_
19	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	acl	_	_
23	Gopani	Gopani	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Kufa	Kufa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past · passive |  | the White Men |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 2 | **live** | past |  | a man |  | Senna; there |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme man=Location |
| 3 | **call** | participle |  | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/43/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/2/)