---
title: "Why, truly," he said, "I think I have caught the devil himself. — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why, truly," he said, "I think I have caught the devil himself. Who acts: Lambton. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 18, sentence 100

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"Why, truly," he said, "I think I have caught the devil himself.

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**Who acts:** Lambton · **What happens:** say, think, catch · **To what, where:** Lambton · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lambton), 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:pg14241:32:100
# text = "Why, truly," he said, "I think I have caught the devil himself.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	truly	truly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
14	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	devil	devil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Lambton |  |  |  |  | truly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | present | Lambton |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **catch** *in a quote* | present · perfect · passive |  | Lambton |  |  |  | Lambton *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary devil=Theme |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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