---
title: ‘A short time since there was a man here who said he could do it,’ s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘A short time since there was a man here who said he could do it,’ said the King’s daughter. Who acts: short time, man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 3, sentence 30

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‘A short time since there was a man here who said he could do it,’ said the King’s daughter.

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**Who acts:** short time, man · **What happens:** be, say, do · **To what, where:** man, hold · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, 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 (short time, 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:pg540:46:30
# text = ‘A short time since there was a man here who said he could do it,’ said the King’s daughter.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	7	expl	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
10	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	’s	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | a short time | a man |  | here |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | could | man | hold |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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