---
title: Then the eldest Simon bowed and said: “We are plain folk, your Majes… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the eldest Simon bowed and said: “We are plain folk, your Majesty, and understand simple things best. Who acts: eldest Simon, We. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/5/143/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 143

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Then the eldest Simon bowed and said: “We are plain folk, your Majesty, and understand simple things best.

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**Who acts:** eldest Simon, We · **What happens:** bow, say, be, understand · **To what, where:** plain folk, simple things · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eldest Simon, We), 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:pg2435:5:143
# text = Then the eldest Simon bowed and said: “We are plain folk, your Majesty, and understand simple things best.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	4	amod	_	_
4	Simon	Simon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	folk	folk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	Majesty	majesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
20	simple	simple	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	_
22	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bow** | past | the eldest Simon |  |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the eldest Simon *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | We | plain folk |  |  |  | your Majesty *vocative* | tree rules |
| 4 | **understand** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | simple things |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |

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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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