---
title: At length he reached an old magician called Mana, whose learning was… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At length he reached an old magician called Mana, whose learning was greater than that of the rest, and who could tell him all he wanted to know. Who acts: deal, learning. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At length he reached an old magician called Mana, whose learning was greater than that of the rest, and who could tell him all he wanted to know.

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**Who acts:** deal, learning · **What happens:** reach, call, be, tell, want, know · **To what, where:** old magician, length, deal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Young Man Who Would Have His Eyes Opened. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (deal, learning), 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:pg641:34:4
# text = At length he reached an old magician called Mana, whose learning was greater than that of the rest, and who could tell him all he wanted to know.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	Mana	Mana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	learning	learning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
15	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	rest	rest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	iobj	_	_
26	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | deal | a old magician |  | length |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent magician=Theme at length=Asset |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a old magician *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | learning |  |  |  |  | than that; great *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could |  |  | deal |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **want** | past | deal |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 6 | **know** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | deal *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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