---
title: At the foot of some high mountains there was, once upon a time, a sm… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At the foot of some high mountains there was, once upon a time, a small village, and a little way off two roads met, one of them going to the east and the other to the west. Who acts: two roads. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the p
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/46/)

<!-- 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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/) / 46

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At the foot of some high mountains there was, once upon a time, a small village, and a little way off two roads met, one of them going to the east and the other to the west.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** two roads · **What happens:** be, meet, go · **To what, where:** small village, little way, east

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two 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:pg3027:6:46
# text = At the foot of some high mountains there was, once upon a time, a small village, and a little way off two roads met, one of them going to the east and the other to the west.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
6	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
24	off	off	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nsubj	_	_
27	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	conj	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nmod	_	_
32	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	advcl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	east	east	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	conj	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	west	west	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a small village |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **meet** | past | two roads | a little way *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **go** | gerund |  |  |  | the east |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to east=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/45/)
- next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/47/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/6/)