---
title: Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off, there dwelt three… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off, there dwelt three dreadful sisters, monstrous ogrish women, with golden wings and claws of brass, and with serpents growing on their heads instead of hair. Who acts: subjects, serpents. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terribl
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/24/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/) / 24

# The Blue Fairy Book, The Terrible Head, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off, there dwelt three dreadful sisters, monstrous ogrish women, with golden wings and claws of brass, and with serpents growing on their heads instead of hair.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** subjects, serpents · **What happens:** tell, dwell, grow · **To what, where:** boy, three dreadful sisters, heads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Terrible Head. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (subjects, serpents), 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:pg503:27:24
# text = Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off, there dwelt three dreadful sisters, monstrous ogrish women, with golden wings and claws of brass, and with serpents growing on their heads instead of hair.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
6	somewhere	somewhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	off	off	ADV	RB	_	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	14	expl	_	_
14	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
15	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
16	dreadful	dreadful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	monstrous	monstrous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
20	ogrish	ogrish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	wings	wing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	claws	claw	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	serpents	serpent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
34	growing	grow	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
38	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	40	case	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	fixed	_	_
40	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | subjects *= subject* |  | boy |  | then | with serpents | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **dwell** | past | subjects *= subject* *not said here* | three dreadful sisters and monstrous ogrish women |  | there |  | with golden wings and claws of brass; somewhere *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme sister=Location |
| 3 | **grow** | gerund | serpents *not said here* |  |  | subjects's heads |  | instead hair | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on head=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/25/)
- ↑ back to [The Terrible Head](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/27/)