---
title: ‘I was, sir,’ says he, ‘a very wild boy in my youth, and came throug… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I was, sir,’ says he, ‘a very wild boy in my youth, and came through many distresses; once in particular, as I was on my rambling, I was benighted and could find no lodging. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 68

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‘I was, sir,’ says he, ‘a very wild boy in my youth, and came through many distresses; once in particular, as I was on my rambling, I was benighted and could find no lodging.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, say, come, benight, find · **To what, where:** sir, Thief, many distresses, rambling, I, lodging · **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), 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:pg540:8:68
# text = ‘I was, sir,’ says he, ‘a very wild boy in my youth, and came through many distresses; once in particular, as I was on my rambling, I was benighted and could find no lodging.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
8	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
22	through	through	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	distresses	distress	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	28	advmod	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	particular	particular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	rambling	rambling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
37	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux:pass	_	_
39	benighted	benight	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	conj	_	_
40	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
41	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	42	aux	_	_
42	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	conj	_	_
43	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	44	det	_	_
44	lodging	lodging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | I | sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | Thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | past |  |  |  | many distresses |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme through distress=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **is** | past | I |  |  | my rambling |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **benight** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **find** | could |  | no lodging |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lodging=Topic |

<!-- .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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