---
title: And he sailed about from island to island, and from shore to shore,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And he sailed about from island to island, and from shore to shore, believing that wherever he went everybody was laughing at him, and very soon his poverty was so great that he and his crew and the poor black cats had nothing to eat but herbs and roots. Who acts: Nicholas, everybody, poverty. A sen
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Bronze Ring, sentence 169

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he sailed about from island to island, and from shore to shore, believing that wherever he went everybody was laughing at him, and very soon his poverty was so great that he and his crew and the poor black cats had nothing to eat but herbs and roots.

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**Who acts:** Nicholas, everybody, poverty · **What happens:** sail, believe, go, laugh, be, have · **To what, where:** island, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Bronze Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nicholas, everybody, poverty), 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:pg503:2:169
# text = And he sailed about from island to island, and from shore to shore, believing that wherever he went everybody was laughing at him, and very soon his poverty was so great that he and his crew and the poor black cats had nothing to eat but herbs and roots.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	about	about	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	shore	shore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	believing	believe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	20	advmod	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
21	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	34	advmod	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	poverty	poverty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
35	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	mark	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
37	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
38	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	39	nmod:poss	_	_
39	crew	crew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	conj	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
42	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
43	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	conj	_	_
45	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
46	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	45	obj	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	acl	_	_
49	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
50	herbs	herb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	conj	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	roots	root	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sail** | past | Nicholas |  |  | island |  | to island; from shore to shore; about *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent from island=Trajectory |
| 2 | **believe** | gerund | Nicholas *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | past | Nicholas |  |  |  |  | wherever *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **laugh** | past · progressive | everybody |  |  |  |  | at Nicholas | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | Nicholas's poverty |  |  |  |  | great, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **have** | past | Nicholas | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 7 | **eat** | to-infinitive | Nicholas *not said here* | nothing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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