---
title: Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonder… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace. Who acts: course, last. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan, with its dependency tree and 
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace.

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**Who acts:** course, last · **What happens:** not be, know, say, reach · **To what, where:** emperor, palace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (course, last), 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:pg641:6:21
# text = Of course, it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said; and, at last, the news reached the emperor in his palace.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADV	7	advmod	_	_
2	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
8	before	before	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	det	_	_
15	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
29	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	emperor	emperor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | course |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** | past |  |  |  |  | before the whole town | of this wonderful flute | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of flute=Stimulus |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | course |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **reach** | past | last | the emperor |  | news's palace |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent emperor=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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