---
title: There was the black man on top of the mound, as he had said, and in… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: There was the black man on top of the mound, as he had said, and in truth he was mightier in all ways than I had thought him to be. Who acts: black man, horse, I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There was the black man on top of the mound, as he had said, and in truth he was mightier in all ways than I had thought him to be.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** black man, horse, I · **What happens:** be, say, think · **To what, where:** truth, horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, 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 (black man, horse, I), 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:pg3454:30:28
# text = There was the black man on top of the mound, as he had said, and in truth he was mightier in all ways than I had thought him to be.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	mound	mound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	mightier	mighty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	ccomp	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	ways	way	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
26	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | the black man on top of the mound |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | horse |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | horse |  |  | truth |  | in all ways; mighty *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **think** *speech: other* | past · perfect | I | horse |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent he=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 5 | **be** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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