---
title: Yes, there was no doubt of it—he was quite alone; and he had nothing… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Yes, there was no doubt of it—he was quite alone; and he had nothing to help him except the knife which his comrade had purposely dropped on the ledge of the window. Who acts: doubt. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 16

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Yes, there was no doubt of it—he was quite alone; and he had nothing to help him except the knife which his comrade had purposely dropped on the ledge of the window.

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**Who acts:** doubt · **What happens:** be, have, help, drop, doubt · **To what, where:** nothing, doubt, comrade, ledge, sea

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (doubt), 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:pg3282:20:16
# text = Yes, there was no doubt of it—he was quite alone; and he had nothing to help him except the knife which his comrade had purposely dropped on the ledge of the window.
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	3	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	doubt	doubt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	acl	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	except	except	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	obj	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	comrade	comrade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	purposely	purposely	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	dropped	drop	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl:relcl	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	ledge	ledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no doubt of sea |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | past | doubt |  |  |  |  | alone *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past | doubt | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 4 | **help** | to-infinitive | doubt *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | doubt |  |  | except the knife | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **drop** | past · perfect · passive |  | doubt's comrade |  | the ledge of the window |  | purposely *property* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme which=Destination |
| 6 | **doubt** |  |  | sea |  |  |  |  | nom doubt «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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