---
title: Time passed, and one day the sultan, to his great joy, saw signs of… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Time passed, and one day the sultan, to his great joy, saw signs of fruit on his date tree. Who acts: sultan. 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 7

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Time passed, and one day the sultan, to his great joy, saw signs of fruit on his date tree.

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**Who acts:** sultan · **What happens:** pass, see, joy, sign · **To what, where:** signs, date tree, fruit

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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 (sultan), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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:pg641:29:7
# text = Time passed, and one day the sultan, to his great joy, saw signs of fruit on his date tree.
1	Time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl:unmarked	_	_
2	passed	pass	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	date	date	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | participle |  |  |  |  | time |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | past | the sultan | signs of fruit |  | sultan's date tree | day |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sign=Stimulus |
| 3 | **joy** |  | sultan |  |  |  |  |  | nom joy «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **sign** |  |  | fruit |  |  |  |  | nom sign «communication 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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