---
title: There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman serving… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman serving in the army together, who took it into their heads to run away on the first opportunity they could get. Who acts: Scotsman, Irishman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Blue Mountains, sentence 1

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There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman serving in the army together, who took it into their heads to run away on the first opportunity they could get.

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**Who acts:** Scotsman, Irishman · **What happens:** be, serve, take, run away, get · **To what, where:** army, heads, first opportunity

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scotsman, Irishman), 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:pg640:45:1
# text = There were once a Scotsman and an Englishman and an Irishman serving in the army together, who took it into their heads to run away on the first opportunity they could get.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	5	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	Scotsman	Scotsman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Englishman	Englishman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Irishman	irishman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
12	serving	serve	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	acl	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	together	together	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	into	into	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
26	away	away	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	30	amod	_	_
30	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
31	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a Scotsman and a Englishman and a Irishman |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **serve** | gerund | a Irishman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the army; together *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent in army=Attribute |
| 3 | **take** | past | a Scotsman and a Englishman and a Irishman | army |  | Scotsman's heads |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme into head=Destination |
| 4 | **run away** | to-infinitive | a Scotsman and a Englishman and a Irishman *not said here* |  |  | the first opportunity |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on opportunity=Trajectory |
| 5 | **get** | could | Scotsman | the first opportunity *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer opportunity=Stimulus |

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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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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