---
title: A very long time ago the town of Hamel in Germany was invaded by ban… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A very long time ago the town of Hamel in Germany was invaded by bands of rats, the like of which had never been seen before nor will ever be again. Who acts: bands. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 1

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A very long time ago the town of Hamel in Germany was invaded by bands of rats, the like of which had never been seen before nor will ever be again.

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**Who acts:** bands · **What happens:** invade, not see, be · **To what, where:** town

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bands), 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:pg540:32:1
# text = A very long time ago the town of Hamel in Germany was invaded by bands of rats, the like of which had never been seen before nor will ever be again.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
2	very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
5	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Hamel	Hamel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Germany	Germany	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	invaded	invade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
14	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	bands	band	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
20	like	like	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	26	advmod	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
27	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	32	cc	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	32	advmod	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	cop	_	_
32	again	again	ADV	RB	_	26	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **invade** | past · passive | bands of rats | the town of Hamel in Germany |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **see** | past · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is** | future |  |  |  |  | ever | again *property* | tree rules |

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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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