---
title: ‘I know not how long it is since I myself came, but during all that… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I know not how long it is since I myself came, but during all that time I have never seen a Christian man. Who acts: I, dare. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Soria Moria Castle, sentence 43

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‘I know not how long it is since I myself came, but during all that time I have never seen a Christian man.

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**Who acts:** I, dare · **What happens:** not know, be, not see · **To what, where:** Christian man

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Soria Moria Castle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, dare), 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:pg540:6:43
# text = ‘I know not how long it is since I myself came, but during all that time I have never seen a Christian man.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
6	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
8	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
15	during	during	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	parataxis	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	Christian	Christian	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | present | dare |  |  |  |  | come *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **see** | present · perfect | I | a Christian man |  |  | time |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus |

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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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