---
title: Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc, all of whom certainly existed. Who acts: all. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny,
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny, sentence 35

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc, all of whom certainly existed.

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**Who acts:** all · **What happens:** tell, exist · **To what, where:** good many stories, such stories · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Joan, Toddles, and Tiny. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (all), 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:pg640:2:35
# text = Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc, all of whom certainly existed.
1	Probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
12	about	about	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
16	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	also	also	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	conj	_	_
22	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Napoleon	Napoleon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	Claverhouse	Claverhouse	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	Julius	Julius	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
28	Caesar	Caesar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	Joan	Joan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	Arc	Arc	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
35	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	39	nsubj	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	35	nmod	_	_
38	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
39	existed	exist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | a good many stories |  |  |  | about fairies; probably *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient about fairy=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present · perfect · passive |  | such stories |  |  |  | about Napoleon and Claverhouse and Julius and Joan of Arc | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Recipient about napoleon=Topic |
| 3 | **exist** | past | all |  |  |  |  | certainly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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