---
title: On and on and on she went across bare sandy deserts, where the roads… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: On and on and on she went across bare sandy deserts, where the roads were so heavy that for every two steps that she took forwards she fell back one; but she struggled on till she had passed these dreary plains; next she crossed high rocky mountains, jumping from crag to crag and from peak to peak. 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 129

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On and on and on she went across bare sandy deserts, where the roads were so heavy that for every two steps that she took forwards she fell back one; but she struggled on till she had passed these dreary plains; next she crossed high rocky mountains, jumping from crag to crag and from peak to peak.

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**Who acts:** Princess, roads, two steps · **What happens:** go, be, take, fall back, struggle, pass · **To what, where:** bare sandy deserts, one, dreary plains, high rocky mountains, crag

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Princess, roads, two steps), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg540:12:129
# text = On and on and on she went across bare sandy deserts, where the roads were so heavy that for every two steps that she took forwards she fell back one; but she struggled on till she had passed these dreary plains; next she crossed high rocky mountains, jumping from crag to crag and from peak to peak.
1	On	on	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	on	on	ADV	RB	_	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
5	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	across	across	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	sandy	sandy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	deserts	desert	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	18	advmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	23	det	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	23	nummod	_	_
23	steps	step	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	_
24	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
27	forwards	forwards	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	conj	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
34	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	struggled	struggle	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
36	on	on	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
37	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
39	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
40	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	advcl	_	_
41	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	43	det	_	_
42	dreary	dreary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	plains	plain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	47	punct	_	_
45	next	next	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
46	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
47	crossed	cross	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	conj	_	_
48	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
49	rocky	rocky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	mountains	mountain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
52	jumping	jump	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	47	advcl	_	_
53	from	from	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	crag	crag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
55	to	to	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	crag	crag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	obl	_	_
57	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	59	cc	_	_
58	from	from	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	peak	peak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	conj	_	_
60	to	to	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
61	peak	peak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | Princess | bare sandy deserts |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | the roads |  |  |  |  | heavy *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past | every two steps |  |  |  |  | forwards *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **fall back** | past | Princess | one |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient one=Result |
| 5 | **struggle** | past | Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **pass** | past · perfect | Princess | this dreary plains |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme plain=Trajectory |
| 7 | **cross** | past | Princess | high rocky mountains |  |  |  | next *property* | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mountain=Patient |
| 8 | **jump** | gerund | Princess *not said here* |  |  | crag |  | to crag and peak to peak *result* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient from crag=Initial\_State to crag=Result |

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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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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