---
title: The time seemed long, and it would be hard to say how often she took… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The time seemed long, and it would be hard to say how often she took out the knife and looked at its polished blade to make sure that this one at least was still safe. Who acts: time, sister, one. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, with its dependency t
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20, sentence 91

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The time seemed long, and it would be hard to say how often she took out the knife and looked at its polished blade to make sure that this one at least was still safe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** time, sister, one · **What happens:** seem, be, say, take out, look, polish · **To what, where:** knife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 20. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (time, sister, one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg5615:20:91
# text = The time seemed long, and it would be hard to say how often she took out the knife and looked at its polished blade to make sure that this one at least was still safe.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	expl	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	csubj	_	_
13	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	14	advmod	_	_
14	often	often	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
24	polished	polish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	amod	_	_
25	blade	blade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	advcl	_	_
28	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	xcomp	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	36	mark	_	_
30	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	31	det	_	_
31	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
32	at	at	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	31	nmod	_	_
34	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
35	still	still	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the time |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | would | the time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **take out** | past | sister | the knife |  |  |  | often *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 5 | **look** | past | sister *not said here* |  |  |  |  | at home's polished blade | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at blade=Theme |
| 6 | **polish** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **make** | to-infinitive | sister *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 8 | **is** | past | this one at least |  |  |  | still | safe *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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