---
title: When they had gone some distance on their way, the White Bear asked… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had gone some distance on their way, the White Bear asked her if everything had not happened just as he had foretold, and she could not but own that it had. Who acts: candles, White Bear, everything, bear. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the 
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they had gone some distance on their way, the White Bear asked her if everything had not happened just as he had foretold, and she could not but own that it had.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** candles, White Bear, everything, bear, distance · **What happens:** go, ask, not happen, foretell, own, have · **To what, where:** distance, way, mother

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (candles, White Bear, everything, bear), 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:pg503:4:47
# text = When they had gone some distance on their way, the White Bear asked her if everything had not happened just as he had foretold, and she could not but own that it had.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	White	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	Bear	Bear	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	everything	everything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	20	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	_
21	just	just	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	foretold	foretell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	own	own	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
33	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	32	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · perfect | candles *= candle* | some distance |  | candles's way |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location distance=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the White Bear | candles's way *not said here* | mother |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **happen** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | everything |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **foretell** | past · perfect | bear |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **own** | could |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
| 6 | **have** | past | distance |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: 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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