---
title: ‘Then I dreamt I came to a river, and the old ferryman said to me: “… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Then I dreamt I came to a river, and the old ferryman said to me: “For thirty year’s the ferryman has rowed to and fro. Who acts: I, old ferryman. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Three Wonderful Beggars, sentence 129

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Then I dreamt I came to a river, and the old ferryman said to me: “For thirty year’s the ferryman has rowed to and fro.

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**Who acts:** I, old ferryman · **What happens:** dreamt, come, say, row, fro · **To what, where:** river, me, ferryman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, old ferryman), 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:pg641:4:129
# text = ‘Then I dreamt I came to a river, and the old ferryman said to me: “For thirty year’s the ferryman has rowed to and fro.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	dreamt	dreamt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	ferryman	ferryman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	For	for	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ferryman	ferryman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	rowed	row	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	obl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	fro	fro	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dreamt** | past | I |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | I |  |  | a river |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to river=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old ferryman |  | me |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **row** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | the ferryman |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **fro** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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