---
title: A long way off, near the sea coast of the east of Africa, there dwel… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A long way off, near the sea coast of the east of Africa, there dwelt, once upon a time, a man and his wife. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 20, sentence 108

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A long way off, near the sea coast of the east of Africa, there dwelt, once upon a time, a man and his wife.

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**What happens:** dwell · **To what, where:** man

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 20. 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.

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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:pg3027:20:108
# text = A long way off, near the sea coast of the east of Africa, there dwelt, once upon a time, a man and his wife.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	near	near	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	coast	coast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	east	east	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
17	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	17	advmod	_	_
20	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | participle |  | a man and man's wife |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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 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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