---
title: He knew very well what that meant; but he had taken his precautions… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He knew very well what that meant; but he had taken his precautions and was not afraid. Who acts: Wolf. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 34, sentence 58

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He knew very well what that meant; but he had taken his precautions and was not afraid.

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**Who acts:** Wolf · **What happens:** know, mean, take, not be · **To what, where:** precautions

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 34. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wolf), 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:pg3027:34:58
# text = He knew very well what that meant; but he had taken his precautions and was not afraid.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	5	advmod	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	obj	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	_
7	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	precautions	precaution	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | Wolf |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 2 | **mean** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect | Wolf | Wolf's precautions |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent precaution=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **is** | past | Wolf *not said here* |  |  |  |  | afraid *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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