---
title: He was only just in time: the enemy had almost beaten the king’s arm… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was only just in time: the enemy had almost beaten the king’s army back, and men whispered to each other that if the strange knight did not soon come to their aid, they would be all dead men. Who acts: king, enemy, men, strange knight. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Cr
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 56

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was only just in time: the enemy had almost beaten the king’s army back, and men whispered to each other that if the strange knight did not soon come to their aid, they would be all dead men.

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**Who acts:** king, enemy, men, strange knight, soldiers · **What happens:** be, beat, whisper, not come · **To what, where:** army, each, aid, dead men

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, enemy, men, strange knight), 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:pg2435:13:56
# text = He was only just in time: the enemy had almost beaten the king’s army back, and men whispered to each other that if the strange knight did not soon come to their aid, they would be all dead men.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	back	back	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj	_	_
21	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	21	obl	_	_
24	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	fixed	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
26	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
30	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	33	advmod	_	_
32	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	33	advmod	_	_
33	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	aid	aid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
38	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
39	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	43	aux	_	_
40	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	43	cop	_	_
41	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	43	det	_	_
42	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  | in time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **beat** | past · perfect | the enemy | the king's army |  |  |  | almost *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location army=Theme |
| 3 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | men |  | each |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient how S\_INF»: agent=Agent to each=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **come** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · do-support | the strange knight |  |  | soldiers's aid |  | soon *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to aid=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **is a** | would | soldiers *= soldier* | all dead men |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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