---
title: The way is long, and I travel slowly; but, sooner or later, I shall… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The way is long, and I travel slowly; but, sooner or later, I shall be sure to arrive. Who acts: way, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, 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/pg3027/28/44/)

<!-- 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 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/) / 44

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 44

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The way is long, and I travel slowly; but, sooner or later, I shall be sure to arrive.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, I · **What happens:** be, travel, arrive

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, I), 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:pg3027:28:44
# text = The way is long, and I travel slowly; but, sooner or later, I shall be sure to arrive.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	travel	travel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sooner	soon	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	arrive	arrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the way |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **travel** | present | I |  |  |  |  | slowly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | shall | I |  |  |  |  | soon, sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **arrive** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/43/)
- next →: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/45/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/)