---
title: To the hungry man any road is long, and then there was always the th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To the hungry man any road is long, and then there was always the thought that he had to satisfy a hundred greedy children as well as himself. Who acts: road, Stan. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Stan Bolovan, sentence 43

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To the hungry man any road is long, and then there was always the thought that he had to satisfy a hundred greedy children as well as himself.

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**Who acts:** road, Stan · **What happens:** be, have, satisfy · **To what, where:** thought, hundred greedy children

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Stan Bolovan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (road, Stan), 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:pg641:13:43
# text = To the hungry man any road is long, and then there was always the thought that he had to satisfy a hundred greedy children as well as himself.
1	To	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	hungry	hungry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
5	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
12	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	13	expl	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	16	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	satisfy	satisfy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
24	greedy	greedy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
26	as	as	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADV	21	advmod	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	fixed	_	_
28	as	as	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | any road |  |  |  |  | to the hungry man; long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | any road *not said here* | the thought |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **satisfy** | to-infinitive | Stan *not said here* | hundred greedy children |  |  |  | as Stan | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus child=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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