---
title: Once upon a time there was a country where the rivers were larger, a… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time there was a country where the rivers were larger, and the forests deeper, than anywhere else. Who acts: rivers. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, 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/pg3282/35/38/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted,…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/35/) / 38

# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once upon a time there was a country where the rivers were larger, and the forests deeper, than anywhere else.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** rivers · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** country

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rivers), 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:pg3282:35:38
# text = Once upon a time there was a country where the rivers were larger, and the forests deeper, than anywhere else.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	csubj	_	_
9	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	13	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	forests	forest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl:unmarked	_	_
18	deeper	deep	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	18	conj	_	_
22	else	else	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | a country |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the rivers |  |  |  |  | deep, large *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/35/37/)
- next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/35/39/)
- ↑ back to [Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/35/)