---
title: In that country the people are fond of the roots of bulrushes, which… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In that country the people are fond of the roots of bulrushes, which they think as good as onions, and one of the young men said that they had better collect some of the roots and carry them back to the camp. Who acts: people, one. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 79

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In that country the people are fond of the roots of bulrushes, which they think as good as onions, and one of the young men said that they had better collect some of the roots and carry them back to the camp.

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**Who acts:** people, one · **What happens:** be, think, say, have, collect, carry back · **To what, where:** country, bulrushes, some, people, camp · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, one), 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:pg3282:8:79
# text = In that country the people are fond of the roots of bulrushes, which they think as good as onions, and one of the young men said that they had better collect some of the roots and carry them back to the camp.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	bulrushes	bulrush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	obj	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	as	as	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
19	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	onions	onion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	28	nsubj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	_
28	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	ccomp	_	_
32	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	31	xcomp	_	_
33	collect	collect	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	obj	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	conj	_	_
40	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	back	back	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	camp	camp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the people |  |  | that country |  | of the roots of bulrushes; fond *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | present | people | bulrushes |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot which=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | one of the young men |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **have** | past | people |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **collect** | infinitive | people *not said here* | some |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Theme |
| 6 | **carry back** | infinitive | people *not said here* | people |  | the camp |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to camp=Destination |

<!-- .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.

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**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.

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