---
title: When they had travelled for some time they had to cross the sea, and… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had travelled for some time they had to cross the sea, and the brother sat down at the helm, and the mother and the two half-sisters went to the fore-part of the vessel, and they sailed a long, long way. Who acts: stepmother, time, brother, mother. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by And
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Bushy Bride, sentence 55

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When they had travelled for some time they had to cross the sea, and the brother sat down at the helm, and the mother and the two half-sisters went to the fore-part of the vessel, and they sailed a long, long way.

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**Who acts:** stepmother, time, brother, mother · **What happens:** travell, have, cross, sit down, go, sail · **To what, where:** time, sea, helm, fore part, long long way

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Bushy Bride. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (stepmother, time, brother, mother), 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:pg540:47:55
# text = When they had travelled for some time they had to cross the sea, and the brother sat down at the helm, and the mother and the two half-sisters went to the fore-part of the vessel, and they sailed a long, long way.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
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	travelled	travell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
19	down	down	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	helm	helm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
29	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
30	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	conj	_	_
33	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
36	fore	fore	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	36	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
44	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	nsubj	_	_
45	sailed	sail	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
47	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
49	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **travell** | past · perfect | stepmother |  |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | stepmother | some time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cross** | to-infinitive | some time *not said here* | the sea |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sea=Patient |
| 4 | **sit down** | past | the brother |  |  | the helm |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at helm=Location |
| 5 | **go** | past | the mother and the two half sisters |  |  | the fore part of the vessel |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to part=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **sail** | past | stepmother | a long long way |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme way=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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