---
title: It was not long before he began to catch glimpses of his native land… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not long before he began to catch glimpses of his native land, and he drew rein near a bridge, the better to look at it. Who acts: ground, Birscha. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was not long before he began to catch glimpses of his native land, and he drew rein near a bridge, the better to look at it.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ground, Birscha · **What happens:** not be, begin, catch, draw, look, glimpse · **To what, where:** glimpses, rein, bridge, native land

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ground, Birscha), 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:pg641:22:36
# text = It was not long before he began to catch glimpses of his native land, and he drew rein near a bridge, the better to look at it.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
5	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	glimpses	glimpse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	native	native	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	drew	draw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	rein	rein	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	near	near	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	csubj	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | ground |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | Birscha |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **catch** | to-infinitive | Birscha *not said here* | glimpses of Birscha's native land |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glimpse=Theme |
| 4 | **draw** | past | Birscha | rein |  | a bridge |  |  | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rein=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | at ground | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at it=Theme |
| 6 | **glimpse** |  |  | Birscha's native land |  |  |  |  | nom glimpse «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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