--- title: ‘I dreamt I was walking on a wide road, and an oak tree said to me:… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: ‘I dreamt I was walking on a wide road, and an oak tree said to me: “Ask the king this: Rotten at the roots, half dead, and yet green stands the old oak. Who acts: I, oak tree. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, with its dependency tree and th --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/125/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/) / 125 # The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 125 ‘I dreamt I was walking on a wide road, and an oak tree said to me: “Ask the king this: Rotten at the roots, half dead, and yet green stands the old oak. **Who acts:** I, oak tree · **What happens:** dreamt, walk, say, ask, stand · **To what, where:** wide road, me, this, king, roots, old oak · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, oak tree), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg641:4:125 # text = ‘I dreamt I was walking on a wide road, and an oak tree said to me: “Ask the king this: Rotten at the roots, half dead, and yet green stands the old oak. 1 ‘ ' PUNCT `` _ 3 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 dreamt dreamt VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 6 nsubj _ _ 5 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 6 aux _ _ 6 walking walk VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 3 ccomp _ _ 7 on on ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 8 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 9 wide wide ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 10 amod _ _ 10 road road NOUN NN Number=Sing 6 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 11 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 12 and and CCONJ CC _ 16 cc _ _ 13 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 15 det _ _ 14 oak oak NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 compound _ _ 15 tree tree NOUN NN Number=Sing 16 nsubj _ _ 16 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 17 to to ADP IN _ 18 case _ _ 18 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 16 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 19 : : PUNCT : _ 21 punct _ _ 20 “ " PUNCT `` _ 21 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 21 Ask ask VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 16 ccomp _ _ 22 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 23 det _ _ 23 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 21 obj _ _ 24 this this PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 21 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 25 : : PUNCT : _ 26 punct _ _ 26 Rotten Rotten PROPN NNP Number=Sing 21 obl _ _ 27 at at ADP IN _ 29 case _ _ 28 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 29 det _ _ 29 roots root NOUN NNS Number=Plur 21 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 30 , , PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 31 half half ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac 32 advmod _ _ 32 dead dead ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 33 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 34 and and CCONJ CC _ 37 cc _ _ 35 yet yet ADV RB _ 36 advmod _ _ 36 green green ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 37 amod _ _ 37 stands stand VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 38 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 40 det _ _ 39 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 40 amod _ _ 40 oak oak NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **dreamt** | past | I | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **walk** | past · progressive | I | | | a wide road | | | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on road=Trajectory | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a oak tree | | me | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to i=Recipient clause=Topic | | 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | infinitive | | this | the king | the roots | | Rotten *obl* | tree rules | | 5 | **stand** *in a quote* | present | a oak tree *= tree* *not said here* | the old oak | | | | | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer oak=Stimulus | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/124/) - next →: [sentence 126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/126/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/4/)