---
title: After they had gone some little way they came to the bank of a river… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: After they had gone some little way they came to the bank of a river, and the Prince threw the witch’s daughter across to serve as a bridge, and so got over with the cinder wench. Who acts: barleycorns, Prince. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependen
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 125

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
After they had gone some little way they came to the bank of a river, and the Prince threw the witch’s daughter across to serve as a bridge, and so got over with the cinder wench.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** barleycorns, Prince · **What happens:** go, come, throw, serve, get over · **To what, where:** little way, daughter

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (barleycorns, Prince), 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:pg540:14:125
# text = After they had gone some little way they came to the bank of a river, and the Prince threw the witch’s daughter across to serve as a bridge, and so got over with the cinder wench.
1	After	after	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
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	20	advcl	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
6	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
25	across	across	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
35	over	over	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	cinder	cinder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	wench	wench	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past · perfect | barleycorns *= barleycorn* | some little way |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | barleycorns *= barleycorn* | some little way *not said here* |  |  |  | to the bank of a river | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme |
| 3 | **throw** | past | the Prince | the witch's daughter |  |  |  | across *property* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme |
| 4 | **serve** | to-infinitive | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a bridge | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as bridge=Attribute |
| 5 | **get over** | past | the Prince *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with the cinder wench; over *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 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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