---
title: At length I reached home, where I was told that my father had just b… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length I reached home, where I was told that my father had just been born, and that I must go at once to fetch some holy water to sprinkle him with. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Finest Liar in the World, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Finest Liar in the World, sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length I reached home, where I was told that my father had just been born, and that I must go at once to fetch some holy water to sprinkle him with.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** reach, tell, bear, go, fetch, sprinkle · **To what, where:** length, I, father, holy water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (I), 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:pg641:3:42
# text = At length I reached home, where I was told that my father had just been born, and that I must go at once to fetch some holy water to sprinkle him with.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	home	home	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	10	advmod	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	born	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	23	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
29	holy	holy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	sprinkle	sprinkle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | I |  |  | length |  | home *property* | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **bear** | past · perfect · passive |  | my father |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 4 | **go** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at once=Location |
| 5 | **fetch** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | some holy water |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme |
| 6 | **sprinkle** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | father |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Destination |

<!-- .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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