---
title: At length it was decided that the turtle, whose prudence was well kn… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length it was decided that the turtle, whose prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom. Who acts: length. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length it was decided that the turtle, whose prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** length · **What happens:** decide, know, swim, land, contrive, catch · **To what, where:** liver, turtle, length, living ape, ape, ocean kingdom

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Monkey and the Jelly-fish. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (length), 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:pg641:32:7
# text = At length it was decided that the turtle, whose prudence was well known, should swim to land and contrive to catch a living ape and bring him safely to the ocean kingdom.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl:relcl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	turtle	turtle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	prudence	prudence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
13	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	14	advmod	_	_
14	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	swim	swim	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	land	land	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	contrive	contrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	ape	ape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	safely	safely	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	ocean	ocean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	kingdom	kingdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | past · passive | length *not said here* | liver |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Topic |
| 2 | **know** | past · passive |  | the turtle |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **swim** | should |  |  |  | length |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **land** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **contrive** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **catch** | to-infinitive |  | a living ape |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ape=Theme |
| 7 | **bring** | infinitive |  | ape |  | the ocean kingdom |  | safely *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to kingdom=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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