---
title: Covan knew not how far they might yet have to go, or indeed if they… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Covan knew not how far they might yet have to go, or indeed if they were on the right road. Who acts: Covan. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 30, sentence 83

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Covan knew not how far they might yet have to go, or indeed if they were on the right road.

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**Who acts:** Covan · **What happens:** not know, have, go, be · **To what, where:** right road · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Covan), 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:pg3027:30:83
# text = Covan knew not how far they might yet have to go, or indeed if they were on the right road.
1	Covan	Covan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	_
4	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
5	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	9	advmod	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
13	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
14	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | Covan |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **have** | might | Covan |  |  |  | yet | far *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | to-infinitive | Covan *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Covan |  |  | the right road |  | indeed *property* | tree rules |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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