---
title: I consulted the most experienced seamen on the depth of the channel,… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I consulted the most experienced seamen on the depth of the channel, and they told me that in the middle, at high water, it was seventy glumguffs (about six feet of European measure). Who acts: I, seamen, channel. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV, with its dependency tr
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Chapter IV, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I consulted the most experienced seamen on the depth of the channel, and they told me that in the middle, at high water, it was seventy glumguffs (about six feet of European measure).

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, seamen, channel · **What happens:** consult, tell, be · **To what, where:** experienced seamen, depth, seventy glumguffs, me, high water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Chapter IV. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, seamen, channel), 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:pg503:46:3
# text = I consulted the most experienced seamen on the depth of the channel, and they told me that in the middle, at high water, it was seventy glumguffs (about six feet of European measure).
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	consulted	consult	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	5	advmod	_	_
5	experienced	experienced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	seamen	seaman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	depth	depth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	channel	channel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	seventy	seventy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	glumguffs	glumguff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	iobj	_	_
31	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	about	about	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	appos	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	European	European	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	measure	measure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **consult** | past | I | the experienced seamen |  | the depth of the channel |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seaman=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | seamen *= seaman* | seventy glumguffs | me | high water |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient glumguff=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past | channel | seventy glumguffs |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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