---
title: Then Halfman began: ‘After we were twelve days’ journey from home, w… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Halfman began: ‘After we were twelve days’ journey from home, we met an ogress, who gave us greeting and said, “Why have you been so long coming? Who acts: Halfman, we, ogress. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of Halfman, sentence 148

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Then Halfman began: ‘After we were twelve days’ journey from home, we met an ogress, who gave us greeting and said, “Why have you been so long coming?

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**Who acts:** Halfman, we, ogress · **What happens:** begin, be, meet, give, say, come · **To what, where:** home, ogress, greeting, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Halfman. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Halfman, we, ogress), 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:pg641:41:148
# text = Then Halfman began: ‘After we were twelve days’ journey from home, we met an ogress, who gave us greeting and said, “Why have you been so long coming?
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	Halfman	Halfman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	After	after	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
8	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ogress	ogress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
23	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	greeting	greeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
28	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
30	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
32	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	aux	_	_
33	so	so	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Halfman |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** | past | we |  |  | home | after twelve days's journey; day |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **meet** | past | we | a ogress |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ogress=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **give** | past | a ogress | greeting | us |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient greeting=Theme |
| 5 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Halfman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **come** *in a quote* | present · perfect · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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