---
title: At midday the Prince and his men came to a deep river, spanned by so… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At midday the Prince and his men came to a deep river, spanned by so narrow a bridge that only one rider could cross at a time. Who acts: Prince, one rider. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At midday the Prince and his men came to a deep river, spanned by so narrow a bridge that only one rider could cross at a time.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Prince, one rider · **What happens:** come, span, cross · **To what, where:** midday, deep river, bridge

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Prince, one rider), 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:pg503:26:51
# text = At midday the Prince and his men came to a deep river, spanned by so narrow a bridge that only one rider could cross at a time.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midday	midday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	conj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	spanned	span	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl	_	_
15	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	rider	rider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the Prince and prince's men |  |  | midday |  | to a deep river | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to river=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **span** | participle |  | a deep river *not said here* |  |  |  | narrow *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **cross** | could | one rider | a bridge |  |  | time |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=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 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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