---
title: “Old fool,” he cried, as soon as he could speak, “did you really bel… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Old fool,” he cried, as soon as he could speak, “did you really believe that my strength came from that tree?” Who acts: Dragon, you, strength. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 71

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“Old fool,” he cried, as soon as he could speak, “did you really believe that my strength came from that tree?”

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**Who acts:** Dragon, you, strength · **What happens:** cry, speak, believe, come · **To what, where:** Old fool, tree · **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 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dragon, you, strength), 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:pg2435:8:71
# text = “Old fool,” he cried, as soon as he could speak, “did you really believe that my strength came from that tree?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	as	as	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	really	really	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
25	from	from	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
27	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Dragon | Old fool |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | could | Dragon |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **believe** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | past | my strength |  |  | that tree |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from tree=Initial\_Location |

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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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