---
title: As we were flying home over the sea one of the strings that held the… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As we were flying home over the sea one of the strings that held the bag of millet broke in two, and the sack dropped straight into the ocean. Who acts: we, strings, one, sack. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As we were flying home over the sea one of the strings that held the bag of millet broke in two, and the sack dropped straight into the ocean.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, strings, one, sack · **What happens:** fly, hold, break, drop · **To what, where:** sea, bag, two, ocean

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, strings, one, sack), 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:pg641:3:33
# text = As we were flying home over the sea one of the strings that held the bag of millet broke in two, and the sack dropped straight into the ocean.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	flying	fly	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	csubj	_	_
5	home	home	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	over	over	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nmod	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	millet	millet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
19	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	sack	sack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
27	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fly** | past · progressive | we |  |  | the sea |  | home *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent over sea=Location |
| 2 | **hold** | past | the strings | the bag of millet |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=Theme |
| 3 | **break** | past | one of the strings |  |  | two |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in two=Location |
| 4 | **drop** | past | the sack |  |  | the ocean |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into ocean=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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