---
title: One day, news was brought to the sultan that the dates were ripe, an… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: One day, news was brought to the sultan that the dates were ripe, and he ordered one of his men to go and watch the tree. Who acts: dates, sultan, one. 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 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
One day, news was brought to the sultan that the dates were ripe, and he ordered one of his men to go and watch the tree.

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**Who acts:** dates, sultan, one · **What happens:** bring, be, order, go, watch · **To what, where:** news, sultan, one, tree

<!-- .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 (dates, sultan, one), 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:pg641:29:82
# text = One day, news was brought to the sultan that the dates were ripe, and he ordered one of his men to go and watch the tree.
1	One	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	sultan	sultan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dates	date	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
13	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	ripe	ripe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	advcl	_	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	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past · passive |  | news |  | the sultan | day |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to sultan=Destination |
| 2 | **is** | past | the dates |  |  |  |  | ripe *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **order** | past | sultan | one of sultan's men |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent one=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | one of sultan's men *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **watch** | infinitive | one of sultan's men *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |

<!-- .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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