---
title: ‘I was as near death once as the prince is yet,’ says the Black Thie… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I was as near death once as the prince is yet,’ says the Black Thief, ‘and escaped; and so will he too.’ Who acts: I, prince, Black Thief. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 62

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‘I was as near death once as the prince is yet,’ says the Black Thief, ‘and escaped; and so will he too.’

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**Who acts:** I, prince, Black Thief · **What happens:** be, say, escape · **To what, where:** Black Thief · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, prince, Black Thief), 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:pg540:8:62
# text = ‘I was as near death once as the prince is yet,’ says the Black Thief, ‘and escaped; and so will he too.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	near	near	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
7	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	6	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
15	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	‘	‘	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	escaped	escape	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	too	too	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | as near death; once *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | the prince |  |  |  |  | yet *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | the Black Thief |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thief=Topic |
| 4 | **escape** | past | the Black Thief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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