---
title: But a time was coming when he learned to change his opinion. — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But a time was coming when he learned to change his opinion. Who acts: time, Cutter. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19, sentence 117

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But a time was coming when he learned to change his opinion.

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**Who acts:** time, Cutter · **What happens:** come, learn, change, opine · **To what, where:** opinion

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (time, Cutter), 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:pg2435:19:117
# text = But a time was coming when he learned to change his opinion.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	learned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	opinion	opinion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past · progressive | a time |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **learn** | past | Cutter |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **change** | to-infinitive | Cutter *not said here* | Cutter's opinion |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opinion=Patient |
| 4 | **opine** |  | Cutter |  |  |  |  |  | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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 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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