---
title: And his wife was very old too—how old I do not know; but some said s… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: And his wife was very old too—how old I do not know; but some said she was as old as the goddess Venus herself. Who acts: wife, I, some. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 65

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And his wife was very old too—how old I do not know; but some said she was as old as the goddess Venus herself.

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**Who acts:** wife, I, some · **What happens:** be, not know, say · **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 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, I, some), 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:pg2435:9:65
# text = And his wife was very old too—how old I do not know; but some said she was as old as the goddess Venus herself.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	very	very	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	conj	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	as	as	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	ccomp	_	_
23	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	goddess	goddess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	Venus	Venus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	appos	_	_
27	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	26	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | child's wife |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | child's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | some |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | as the goddess; old *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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