---
title: ‘Yes, indeed,’ said the village elders, ‘it is certainly the first t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes, indeed,’ said the village elders, ‘it is certainly the first time we have heard that hares thrive in the water or fish among the tree tops.’ Who acts: sort, hares. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., with its dependency tre
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water., sentence 111

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Yes, indeed,’ said the village elders, ‘it is certainly the first time we have heard that hares thrive in the water or fish among the tree tops.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sort, hares · **What happens:** say, be, thrive · **To what, where:** village elders, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, How a Fish Swam in the Air and a Hare in the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sort, hares), 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:pg641:16:111
# text = ‘Yes, indeed,’ said the village elders, ‘it is certainly the first time we have heard that hares thrive in the water or fish among the tree tops.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	elders	elder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
15	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	amod	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	hares	hare	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
24	thrive	thrive	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	conj	_	_
30	among	among	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	tops	top	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the village elders |  |  |  | indeed *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent elder=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | present · perfect | sort |  |  |  | time | certainly, hear *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **thrive** | present | hares |  |  | the water or fish |  | among the tree tops | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in water=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 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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