---
title: I know it hair by hair, and in and out; but if I tell you what I kno… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I know it hair by hair, and in and out; but if I tell you what I know, who is there that can say I speak the truth? Who acts: I, truth, that. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I know it hair by hair, and in and out; but if I tell you what I know, who is there that can say I speak the truth?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, truth, that · **What happens:** know, hair, tell, be, say, speak · **To what, where:** you, truth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, truth, that), 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:pg3282:6:26
# text = I know it hair by hair, and in and out; but if I tell you what I know, who is there that can say I speak the truth?
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	out	out	ADV	RB	_	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
24	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	23	expl	_	_
25	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	27	nsubj	_	_
26	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	ccomp	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  | by hair | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **hair** |  | truth |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |
| 5 | **be** | present |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | can | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | I | the truth |  |  |  |  | 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 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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