---
title: They would tell you that long, long ago you would have met fishes on… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They would tell you that long, long ago you would have met fishes on the land, wandering from place to place, and hunting all sorts of animals, and if you consider how fishes are made, you will understand how difficult this must have been and how clever they were to do it. Who acts: fishes, you, dif
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They would tell you that long, long ago you would have met fishes on the land, wandering from place to place, and hunting all sorts of animals, and if you consider how fishes are made, you will understand how difficult this must have been and how clever they were to do it.

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**Who acts:** fishes, you, difficult · **What happens:** tell, meet, wonder, hunt, consider, make · **To what, where:** you, fishes, land, place, sorts, animals · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fishes, you, difficult), 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:pg3454:17:69
# text = They would tell you that long, long ago you would have met fishes on the land, wandering from place to place, and hunting all sorts of animals, and if you consider how fishes are made, you will understand how difficult this must have been and how clever they were to do it.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
6	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
9	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
13	met	meet	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
14	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	wandering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
27	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	det	_	_
28	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
33	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	consider	consider	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	43	advcl	_	_
36	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	39	advmod	_	_
37	fishes	fish	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nsubj:pass	_	_
38	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux:pass	_	_
39	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
41	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
42	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
43	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	advcl	_	_
44	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	45	advmod	_	_
45	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	nsubj	_	_
46	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	45	nsubj	_	_
47	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	52	aux	_	_
48	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	aux	_	_
49	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	52	cop	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
51	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	52	advmod	_	_
52	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	ccomp	_	_
53	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
54	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	to	to	PART	TO	_	56	mark	_	_
56	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	parataxis	_	_
57	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | would | fishes *= fish* |  | you |  |  | long *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 2 | **meet** | would · perfect | you | fishes |  | the land |  | ago *property* | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  | place to place |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **hunt** | gerund | fishes *= fish* *not said here* | all sorts of animals |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sort=Theme |
| 5 | **consider** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **make** | present · passive |  | fishes |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 7 | **understand** | future | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 8 | **is** | must · perfect | difficult |  |  |  |  | clever *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **do** | past | fishes *= fish* | place |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 10 | **sort** |  |  | animals |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 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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