---
title: A river, yet not a river, for it seemed not to flow over the earth,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: A river, yet not a river, for it seemed not to flow over the earth, but to go where it liked, and to leave no trace of its passage. Who acts: river, breath. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2, sentence 59

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A river, yet not a river, for it seemed not to flow over the earth, but to go where it liked, and to leave no trace of its passage.

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**Who acts:** river, breath · **What happens:** seem, not flow, go, like, leave, pass · **To what, where:** earth, trace

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (river, breath), 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:pg641:20:59
# text = A river, yet not a river, for it seemed not to flow over the earth, but to go where it liked, and to leave no trace of its passage.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	flow	flow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	over	over	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	_
22	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	24	advmod	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	liked	like	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	parataxis	_	_
29	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	30	det	_	_
30	trace	trace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | a river yet a river |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **not** **flow** | to-infinitive | a river yet a river *not said here* |  |  | the earth |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over earth=Location |
| 3 | **go** | to-infinitive | a river yet a river *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **like** | past | breath |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 5 | **leave** | to-infinitive |  | no trace of breath's passage |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trace=Theme |
| 6 | **pass** |  | breath |  |  |  |  |  | nom passage «act intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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