---
title: “Oh, if I could only meet with a true friend,” he thought, “so that… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Oh, if I could only meet with a true friend,” he thought, “so that I should have some one to speak to. Who acts: son. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/37/52/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/37/) / 52

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Oh, if I could only meet with a true friend,” he thought, “so that I should have some one to speak to.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** meet, think, have, speak · **To what, where:** one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (son), 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:pg2435:37:52
# text = “Oh, if I could only meet with a true friend,” he thought, “so that I should have some one to speak to.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
6	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	meet	meet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
9	with	with	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
24	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | could | son |  |  |  |  | with a true friend | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with friend=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | son |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **have** *in a quote* | should | son | some one |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | son *not said here* | some one *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/37/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/37/53/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/37/)