---
title: And how, then, did they know that there was such a land to be seen? — The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth · tree and pragmatics
description: And how, then, did they know that there was such a land to be seen? Who acts: criers, land. A sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2, sentence 37

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And how, then, did they know that there was such a land to be seen?

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**Who acts:** criers, land · **What happens:** do, know, be, see · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (criers, land), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg68641:4:37
# text = And how, then, did they know that there was such a land to be seen?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	11	expl	_	_
11	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
12	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	14	det:predet	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  | then |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **know** | present | criers *= crier* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **be** | past | such land |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | to-infinitive · passive | such land *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V» |

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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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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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