---
title: As they drove along the road they met three witches; the first of th… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: As they drove along the road they met three witches; the first of them was blind, the second was hunchbacked, and the third had a large thorn in her throat. Who acts: brothers, first, third. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Frog, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
As they drove along the road they met three witches; the first of them was blind, the second was hunchbacked, and the third had a large thorn in her throat.

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**Who acts:** brothers, first, third · **What happens:** drive, meet, be, hunchback, have · **To what, where:** road, three witches, second, large thorn, throat

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Frog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brothers, first, third), 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:pg641:36:60
# text = As they drove along the road they met three witches; the first of them was blind, the second was hunchbacked, and the third had a large thorn in her throat.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	drove	drive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
4	along	along	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	first	first	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	17	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
17	blind	blind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	hunchbacked	hunchback	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	third	third	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
29	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	thorn	thorn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	throat	throat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drive** | past | brothers *= brother* |  |  | the road |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent along road=Trajectory |
| 2 | **meet** | past | brothers *= brother* | three witches |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent witch=Co-Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | the first of brothers |  |  |  |  | blind *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hunchback** | past · passive |  | the second |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **have** | past | the third | a large thorn |  | third's throat |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thorn=Patient |

<!-- .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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