---
title: They told that they, in crossing Hungary, had sojourned in a mountai… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They told that they, in crossing Hungary, had sojourned in a mountainous country called Transylvania, where the inhabitants only spoke German, while all around them nothing was spoken but Hungarian. Who acts: merchants, inhabitants. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher, 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They told that they, in crossing Hungary, had sojourned in a mountainous country called Transylvania, where the inhabitants only spoke German, while all around them nothing was spoken but Hungarian.

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**Who acts:** merchants, inhabitants · **What happens:** tell, cross, sojourn, call, speak · **To what, where:** Hungary, mountainous country, German, nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (merchants, inhabitants), 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:pg540:32:96
# text = They told that they, in crossing Hungary, had sojourned in a mountainous country called Transylvania, where the inhabitants only spoke German, while all around them nothing was spoken but Hungarian.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
8	Hungary	Hungary	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	sojourned	sojourn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	mountainous	mountainous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
16	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	acl	_	_
17	Transylvania	Transylvania	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
24	German	German	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	all	all	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
28	around	around	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	parataxis	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	Hungarian	Hungarian	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | merchants *= merchant* |  |  |  |  | that citizens *= citizen* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cross** | gerund | merchants *= merchant* *not said here* | Hungary |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hungary=Patient |
| 3 | **sojourn** | past · perfect | merchants *= merchant* *not said here* |  |  | a mountainous country |  |  | vn weekend-56 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Location |
| 4 | **call** | participle |  | a mountainous country *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the inhabitants | German |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **speak** *speech: other* | past · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  | all *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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