---
title: And I went to the date tree, and saw it was true; and that is what I… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And I went to the date tree, and saw it was true; and that is what I have to tell you.’ Who acts: I, bird, that. 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 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And I went to the date tree, and saw it was true; and that is what I have to tell you.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, bird, that · **What happens:** go, see, be, have, tell · **To what, where:** date tree, you · **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 (I, bird, that), 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:pg641:29:32
# text = And I went to the date tree, and saw it was true; and that is what I have to tell you.’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	obl	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | I |  |  | the date tree |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to tree=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **see** | past | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past | bird |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

<!-- .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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