---
title: Some time had passed away—who can tell how long they might have been… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Some time had passed away—who can tell how long they might have been living there?—when the witch, to whom a child had been born in the meantime, began to take an ill-will to the man’s daughter, and to torment her in all sorts of ways. Who acts: time, bones, witch. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book»
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some time had passed away—who can tell how long they might have been living there?—when the witch, to whom a child had been born in the meantime, began to take an ill-will to the man’s daughter, and to torment her in all sorts of ways.

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**Who acts:** time, bones, witch · **What happens:** pass away, tell, live, bear, begin, take · **To what, where:** child, meantime, witch, sorts, ways · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (time, bones, witch), 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:pg540:14:21
# text = Some time had passed away—who can tell how long they might have been living there?—when the witch, to whom a child had been born in the meantime, began to take an ill-will to the man’s daughter, and to torment her in all sorts of ways.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	away	away	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
10	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
11	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux	_	_
15	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	aux	_	_
16	living	live	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
17	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	obl	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	meantime	meantime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
39	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	41	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	advcl	_	_
42	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	’s	's	PART	POS	_	44	case	_	_
46	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
49	to	to	PART	TO	_	50	mark	_	_
50	torment	torment	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
51	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obj	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
53	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	54	det	_	_
54	sorts	sort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	_
55	of	of	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	54	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass away** | past · perfect | some time |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** | might · perfect · progressive | bones *= bone* |  |  | there |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | a child |  | the meantime |  | to the witch | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 5 | **begin** | past | the witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **take** | to-infinitive | the witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **torment** | to-infinitive | some time *not said here* | witch |  | all sorts of ways |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer |
| 8 | **sort** |  |  | ways |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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