---
title: In spite of what the soldiers had said, the boy knew no more magic t… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: In spite of what the soldiers had said, the boy knew no more magic than the king did, and his task seemed more hopeless than before. Who acts: soldiers, boy, king, task. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In spite of what the soldiers had said, the boy knew no more magic than the king did, and his task seemed more hopeless than before.

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**Who acts:** soldiers, boy, king, task · **What happens:** say, know, do, seem, task · **To what, where:** more magic, spite · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldiers, boy, king, task), 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:pg2435:21:66
# text = In spite of what the soldiers had said, the boy knew no more magic than the king did, and his task seemed more hopeless than before.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	spite	spite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	2	nmod	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	no	no	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	_
15	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	task	task	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
25	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	26	advmod	_	_
26	hopeless	hopeless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	_
27	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	before	before	ADV	RB	_	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | the soldiers |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **know** | past | the boy | more magic |  | spite |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer magic=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | past | the king |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **seem** | past | king's task |  |  |  |  | hopeless *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **task** |  | king |  |  |  |  |  | nom task «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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