---
title: He was a strange enough boy to be six years old, for he looked as if… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: He was a strange enough boy to be six years old, for he looked as if he were eighteen, and was even bigger and stronger than lads commonly are at that age. Who acts: smith. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was a strange enough boy to be six years old, for he looked as if he were eighteen, and was even bigger and stronger than lads commonly are at that age.

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**Who acts:** smith · **What happens:** be, look · **To what, where:** strange enough boy, age

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (smith), 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:pg5615:12:30
# text = He was a strange enough boy to be six years old, for he looked as if he were eighteen, and was even bigger and stronger than lads commonly are at that age.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
4	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
5	enough	enough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
9	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	eighteen	eighteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	even	even	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	conj	_	_
28	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	lads	lad	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
30	commonly	commonly	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
31	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | smith | a strange enough boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **look** | past | smith |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | smith |  |  |  |  | as eighteen | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | than lads; big *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  | at that age | commonly *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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