---
title: At first the king would not believe their story, but as they persist… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: At first the king would not believe their story, but as they persisted it was quite true, he said that he would go and watch the stream that night himself. Who acts: king, watchmen, story. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tre
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At first the king would not believe their story, but as they persisted it was quite true, he said that he would go and watch the stream that night himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, watchmen, story · **What happens:** not believe, persist, be, say, go, watch · **To what, where:** story, stream · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, watchmen, story), 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:pg2435:20:57
# text = At first the king would not believe their story, but as they persisted it was quite true, he said that he would go and watch the stream that night himself.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	7	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	persisted	persist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	advcl	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	watch	watch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	31	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **believe** | would | the king | watchmen's story |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 2 | **persist** | past | watchmen *= watchman* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | story |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** | would | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **watch** | infinitive | king *not said here* | the stream |  |  | night |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stream=Theme |

<!-- .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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