---
title: At length the king was on his way back; but he had a big river to cr… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: At length the king was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a whirlpool, and he could not get over the water. Who acts: king, boy. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, Nix Nought Nothing, sentence 5

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At length the king was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a whirlpool, and he could not get over the water.

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**Who acts:** king, boy · **What happens:** be, have, cross, not get · **To what, where:** way, big river, water

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Nix Nought Nothing. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, boy), 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:pg7439:12:5
# text = At length the king was on his way back; but he had a big river to cross, and there was a whirlpool, and he could not get over the water.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	length	length	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	whirlpool	whirlpool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the king |  |  | boy's way |  | at length | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | boy | a big river |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 3 | **cross** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | a big river *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **get** | could | boy |  |  | the water |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme over water=Destination |

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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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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