---
title: The honorific prefix "Sir" may in that case refer to clerkly qualiti… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The honorific prefix "Sir" may in that case refer to clerkly qualities rather than to knighthood. Who acts: honorific prefix. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LI. Sir Gammer Vans, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, LI. Sir Gammer Vans, sentence 14

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The honorific prefix "Sir" may in that case refer to clerkly qualities rather than to knighthood.

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**Who acts:** honorific prefix · **What happens:** refer · **To what, where:** case

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, LI. Sir Gammer Vans. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (honorific prefix), 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:pg14241:42:14
# text = The honorific prefix "Sir" may in that case refer to clerkly qualities rather than to knighthood.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	honorific	honorific	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	prefix	prefix	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Sir	Sir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
7	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	case	case	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
11	refer	refer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	clerkly	clerkly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	qualities	quality	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
15	rather	rather	ADV	RB	ExtPos=CCONJ	18	cc	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	knighthood	knighthood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **refer** | may | the honorific prefix |  |  | that case |  | to clerkly qualities | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to quality=Co-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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