---
title: Some were half way up the ladders, some had one foot over the wall,… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Some were half way up the ladders, some had one foot over the wall, but wherever they might chance to be there every man remained, even the emperor and his sorcerer. Who acts: Some, foes, man. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, Virgilius the Sorcerer, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Some were half way up the ladders, some had one foot over the wall, but wherever they might chance to be there every man remained, even the emperor and his sorcerer.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Some, foes, man · **What happens:** be, have, chance, remain · **To what, where:** way, one foot, wall

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Virgilius the Sorcerer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Some, foes, man), 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:pg641:43:47
# text = Some were half way up the ladders, some had one foot over the wall, but wherever they might chance to be there every man remained, even the emperor and his sorcerer.
1	Some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	half	half	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	4	advmod	_	_
4	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	ladders	ladder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	over	over	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	wherever	wherever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	cop	_	_
24	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	acl	_	_
25	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	26	det	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	even	even	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	sorcerer	sorcerer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Some | way |  |  |  | up the ladders; half *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | some | one foot |  | the wall |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient |
| 3 | **chance** | might | foes *= foe* |  |  |  |  | wherever *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | some *not said here* |  |  |  |  | there *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **remain** | past | every man |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «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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