---
title: A long way off in the winter mist they could see the explorer Norden… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A long way off in the winter mist they could see the explorer Nordenskiold with his ship Vega trying to find an opening between the ice. Who acts: ships, ship. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/14/95/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14, sentence 95

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A long way off in the winter mist they could see the explorer Nordenskiold with his ship Vega trying to find an opening between the ice.

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**Who acts:** ships, ship · **What happens:** see, try, find · **To what, where:** long way, winter mist, opening

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ships, ship), 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:pg3454:14:95
# text = A long way off in the winter mist they could see the explorer Nordenskiold with his ship Vega trying to find an opening between the ice.
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	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	off	off	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	mist	mist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	explorer	explorer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	Nordenskiold	Nordenskiold	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
18	Vega	Vega	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
19	trying	try	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	acl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	opening	opening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	between	between	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	ice	ice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | could | ships *= ship* | a long way |  | the winter mist |  | with Nordenskiold's ship | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer explorer=Stimulus |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | Nordenskiold's ship *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **find** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Nordenskiold's ship *not said here* | a opening |  |  |  | between the ice | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opening=Topic |

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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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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