---
title: And they took it up and carried it back to the town, singing as they… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And they took it up and carried it back to the town, singing as they went, ‘He has killed the Nunda, the eater of people.’ Who acts: legs. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nunda, Eater of People, sentence 221

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they took it up and carried it back to the town, singing as they went, ‘He has killed the Nunda, the eater of people.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** legs · **What happens:** take up, carry back, sing, go, kill · **To what, where:** place, town, Nunda · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nunda, Eater of People. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (legs), 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:pg641:29:221
# text = And they took it up and carried it back to the town, singing as they went, ‘He has killed the Nunda, the eater of people.’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
21	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Nunda	Nunda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	eater	eater	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take up** | past | legs *= leg* | place |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **carry back** | past | legs *= leg* *not said here* | place |  | the town |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to town=Destination |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | legs *= leg* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** | past | legs *= leg* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | present · perfect · passive |  | Nunda |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer nunda=Result |

<!-- .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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