---
title: ‘Yes; I am not quite certain,’ said the man, ‘but I think I can catc… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes; I am not quite certain,’ said the man, ‘but I think I can catch a glimpse of something far, far away.’ Who acts: I, man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Farmer Weatherbeard, sentence 95

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‘Yes; I am not quite certain,’ said the man, ‘but I think I can catch a glimpse of something far, far away.’

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**Who acts:** I, man · **What happens:** not be, say, think, catch, glimpse · **To what, where:** glimpse, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Farmer Weatherbeard. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, man), 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:pg540:43:95
# text = ‘Yes; I am not quite certain,’ said the man, ‘but I think I can catch a glimpse of something far, far away.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	glimpse	glimpse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	nmod	_	_
26	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
28	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
29	away	away	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | certain *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **catch** | can | I | a glimpse of something |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glimpse=Theme |
| 5 | **glimpse** |  |  | something |  |  |  |  | nom glimpse «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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