---
title: Whenever he came to a new country the first question that he asked w… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whenever he came to a new country the first question that he asked was whether people died in that land, and when he heard that they did, he set out again on his quest. Who acts: man, people. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Voice of Death, sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whenever he came to a new country the first question that he asked was whether people died in that land, and when he heard that they did, he set out again on his quest.

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**Who acts:** man, people · **What happens:** come, ask, be, hear, do, set out · **To what, where:** new country, first question, land, quest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Voice of Death. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, people), 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:pg540:27:5
# text = Whenever he came to a new country the first question that he asked was whether people died in that land, and when he heard that they did, he set out again on his quest.
1	Whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	10	amod	_	_
10	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
17	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
32	out	out	ADP	RP	_	31	compound:prt	_	_
33	again	again	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
34	on	on	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	quest	quest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	31	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | man |  |  | a new country and the first question |  | whenever *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to country=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | man | the first question *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent question=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | past | people | the first question *not said here* |  | that land |  | die *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hear** | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **do** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **set out** | past | man |  |  | man's quest | again |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **quest** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom quest «cognition intransitive»: poss=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 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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