--- title: “Certainly,” said he to himself, “neither I nor any man living could… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics description: “Certainly,” said he to himself, “neither I nor any man living could shoot an arrow so far,” and, finding it laid flat, not sticking into the ground, he judged that it rebounded against the rock. Who acts: Ahmed, man, place. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahm --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/38/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Blue Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/) / [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fair…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/) / 38 # The Blue Fairy Book, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2, sentence 38 “Certainly,” said he to himself, “neither I nor any man living could shoot an arrow so far,” and, finding it laid flat, not sticking into the ground, he judged that it rebounded against the rock. **Who acts:** Ahmed, man, place · **What happens:** say, live, shoot, find, lay, not stick · **To what, where:** Ahmed, arrow, ground · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ahmed, man, place), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **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:pg503:50:38 # text = “Certainly,” said he to himself, “neither I nor any man living could shoot an arrow so far,” and, finding it laid flat, not sticking into the ground, he judged that it rebounded against the rock. 1 “ " PUNCT `` _ 5 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 2 Certainly certainly ADV RB _ 5 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 3 , , PUNCT , _ 2 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 4 ” " PUNCT '' _ 2 punct _ _ 5 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 6 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 7 to to ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 8 himself himself PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes 5 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 10 “ " PUNCT `` _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 11 neither neither CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 12 cc:preconj _ _ 12 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 13 nor nor CCONJ CC Polarity=Neg 15 cc _ _ 14 any any DET DT PronType=Ind 15 det _ _ 15 man man NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 conj _ _ 16 living live VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 15 acl _ _ 17 could could AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 18 aux _ _ 18 shoot shoot VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 5 parataxis _ _ 19 an a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 arrow arrow NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ _ 21 so so ADV RB _ 22 advmod _ _ 22 far far ADV RB Degree=Pos 18 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 23 , , PUNCT , _ 22 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 24 ” " PUNCT '' _ 18 punct _ _ 25 and and CCONJ CC _ 27 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 26 , , PUNCT , _ 27 punct _ _ 27 finding find VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 5 conj _ _ 28 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 29 nsubj _ _ 29 laid lay VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 27 ccomp _ _ 30 flat flat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 29 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 33 advmod _ _ 33 sticking stick VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 27 conj _ _ 34 into into ADP IN _ 36 case _ _ 35 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 36 det _ _ 36 ground ground NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 37 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 38 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 39 nsubj _ _ 39 judged judge VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 parataxis _ _ 40 that that SCONJ IN _ 42 mark _ _ 41 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 42 nsubj _ _ 42 rebounded rebound VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 39 advcl _ _ 43 against against ADP IN _ 45 case _ _ 44 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 45 det _ _ 45 rock rock NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 46 . . PUNCT . _ 5 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Ahmed | | Ahmed | | | certainly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic | | 2 | **live** *in a quote* | gerund | any man *not said here* | | | | | | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 3 | **shoot** *in a quote* | could | Ahmed | a arrow | | | | far *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent arrow=Theme | | 4 | **find** | gerund | Ahmed *not said here* | | | | | | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | | 5 | **lay** | past | place | | | | | flat *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | | 6 | **not** **stick** | gerund | Ahmed *not said here* | | | the ground | | | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme into ground=Destination | | 7 | **judge** | past | Ahmed | | | | | | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent | | 8 | **rebound** | past | place | | | | | against the rock | tree rules | 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. **Text:** «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/37/) - next →: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/39/) - ↑ back to [The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg503/50/)