---
title: I cannot say whether the voyage was short or long; but at last he re… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I cannot say whether the voyage was short or long; but at last he reached the country of the heathen king and marched on, defeating all who came in his way. Who acts: I, voyage, last. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/8/6/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 Lute Player](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/8/) / 6

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Lute Player, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I cannot say whether the voyage was short or long; but at last he reached the country of the heathen king and marched on, defeating all who came in his way.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, voyage, last · **What happens:** not say, be, reach, march on, defeat, come · **To what, where:** country, last, all, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, voyage, 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:pg641:8:6
# text = I cannot say whether the voyage was short or long; but at last he reached the country of the heathen king and marched on, defeating all who came in his way.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	voyage	voyage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
10	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	heathen	heathen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	marched	march	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	defeating	defeat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	28	obj	_	_
30	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	31	nsubj	_	_
31	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
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	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | the voyage |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | the voyage *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **reach** | past | last | the country of the heathen king |  | last |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent country=Theme at last=Asset |
| 5 | **march on** | participle | last *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **defeat** | gerund | last *not said here* | all |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **come** | past |  |  |  | last's way |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in way=Location |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/8/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/8/7/)
- ↑ back to [The Lute Player](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/8/)