---
title: But Sigurd answered, ‘I have heard stories of that treasure, and I k… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But Sigurd answered, ‘I have heard stories of that treasure, and I know that the dragon Fafnir guards it, and he is so huge and wicked that no man dares to go near him.’ Who acts: Sigurd, I, dragon, man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd, with its dependency tree
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Story of Sigurd, sentence 31

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But Sigurd answered, ‘I have heard stories of that treasure, and I know that the dragon Fafnir guards it, and he is so huge and wicked that no man dares to go near him.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Sigurd, I, dragon, man · **What happens:** answer, hear, know, guard, be, dare · **To what, where:** heard stories, treasure

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sigurd, I, dragon, man), 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:pg540:51:31
# text = But Sigurd answered, ‘I have heard stories of that treasure, and I know that the dragon Fafnir guards it, and he is so huge and wicked that no man dares to go near him.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Sigurd	Sigurd	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	amod	_	_
9	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	Fafnir	Fafnir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	appos	_	_
21	guards	guard	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	huge	huge	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	parataxis	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	conj	_	_
31	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
32	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	33	det	_	_
33	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	dares	dare	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	xcomp	_	_
37	near	near	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Sigurd | heard stories of that treasure |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent story=Eventuality |
| 2 | **hear** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **guard** | present | the dragon | treasure |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **is** | present | Sigurd |  |  |  |  | huge *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** |  | Sigurd *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **dare** | present | no man |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 8 | **go** | to-infinitive | no man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | near Sigurd | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme near he=Location |

<!-- .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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