---
title: Very long ago, as old people have told me, there lived a terrible mo… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Very long ago, as old people have told me, there lived a terrible monster, who came out of the North, and laid waste whole tracts of country, devouring both men and beasts; and this monster was so destructive that it was feared that unless help came no living creature would be left on the face of th
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon of the North(2), sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Very long ago, as old people have told me, there lived a terrible monster, who came out of the North, and laid waste whole tracts of country, devouring both men and beasts; and this monster was so destructive that it was feared that unless help came no living creature would be left on the face of the earth.

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**Who acts:** terrible monster, monster, help · **What happens:** tell, live, come out, devour, be, fear · **To what, where:** old people, me, terrible monster, men, monster, living creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon of the North(2). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (terrible monster, monster, help), 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:pg640:5:3
# text = Very long ago, as old people have told me, there lived a terrible monster, who came out of the North, and laid waste whole tracts of country, devouring both men and beasts; and this monster was so destructive that it was feared that unless help came no living creature would be left on the face of the earth.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
3	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	terrible	terrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
19	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	out	out	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	North	North	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	laid	laid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	waste	waste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
28	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	tracts	tract	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	devouring	devour	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
34	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	35	det	_	_
35	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
37	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	44	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
40	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	41	det	_	_
41	monster	monster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	cop	_	_
43	so	so	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	destructive	destructive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
45	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	48	mark	_	_
46	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	nsubj:pass	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux:pass	_	_
48	feared	fear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	44	advcl	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	48	obl	_	_
50	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
51	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nsubj	_	_
52	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	advcl	_	_
53	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	55	det	_	_
54	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	_
55	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	nsubj:pass	_	_
56	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	58	aux	_	_
57	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	aux:pass	_	_
58	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	52	parataxis	_	_
59	on	on	ADP	IN	_	61	case	_	_
60	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	61	det	_	_
61	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	58	obl	_	_
62	of	of	ADP	IN	_	64	case	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	64	det	_	_
64	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	61	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | old people | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic |
| 2 | **live** | past |  | a terrible monster |  | there |  | waste whole tracts of country *obl*; ago *property* | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme monster=Location |
| 3 | **come out** | past | a terrible monster |  |  |  |  | of the North; out *property* | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **devour** | gerund |  | both men and beasts |  |  |  |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient |
| 5 | **is** | past | this monster |  |  |  |  | destructive *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **fear** | past · passive |  | monster |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |
| 7 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | help |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **leave** | would · passive |  | no living creature |  | the face of the earth |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme on face=Location |

<!-- .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 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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