---
title: But how could I be sure that you would not be like other men and tir… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But how could I be sure that you would not be like other men and tire of me from the moment you were sure I loved you?’ Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3, sentence 53

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But how could I be sure that you would not be like other men and tire of me from the moment you were sure I loved you?’

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** be, not be, love · **To what, where:** you

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Graciosa and Percinet, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg540:25:53
# text = But how could I be sure that you would not be like other men and tire of me from the moment you were sure I loved you?’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
6	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	cop	_	_
12	like	like	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	ccomp	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	tire	tire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	loved	love	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	ccomp	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | could | I |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is** | would | you |  |  |  | moment | like other men and tire of me | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | you |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **love** | past | I | you |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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