---
title: ‘No, you never were,’ said the knight; ‘for he is within two or thre… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No, you never were,’ said the knight; ‘for he is within two or three minutes of his latter end.’ Who acts: you, 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 63

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‘No, you never were,’ said the knight; ‘for he is within two or three minutes of his latter end.’

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**Who acts:** you, Thief · **What happens:** not be, say, be · **To what, where:** knight · **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 (you, 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:pg540:8:63
# text = ‘No, you never were,’ said the knight; ‘for he is within two or three minutes of his latter end.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
17	within	within	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	21	nummod	_	_
19	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	conj	_	_
21	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **be** | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the knight |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent knight=Topic |
| 3 | **is** | present | Thief |  |  |  | of Thief's latter end | for two minutes | tree rules |

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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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