---
title: How many days he spent thus he could not tell, but at last he felt t… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: How many days he spent thus he could not tell, but at last he felt that the barrel was knocking against rocks, at which he was a little cheered, thinking it was probably land and not merely a reef in the sea. Who acts: many days, Prince, barrel. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Prince Ring (30), sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
How many days he spent thus he could not tell, but at last he felt that the barrel was knocking against rocks, at which he was a little cheered, thinking it was probably land and not merely a reef in the sea.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** many days, Prince, barrel · **What happens:** spend, not tell, feel, knock, cheer, think · **To what, where:** last, rocks, Prince, land · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Ring (30). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many days, Prince, barrel), 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:pg640:42:19
# text = How many days he spent thus he could not tell, but at last he felt that the barrel was knocking against rocks, at which he was a little cheered, thinking it was probably land and not merely a reef in the sea.
1	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	advmod	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	spent	spend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	barrel	barrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
22	against	against	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	rocks	rock	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	31	obl	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	obl:unmarked	_	_
31	cheered	cheer	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	advcl	_	_
34	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
36	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	ccomp	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
39	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	42	advmod	_	_
40	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	42	advmod	_	_
41	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	_
42	reef	reef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | past | many days |  |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | could | Prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **feel** | past | Prince |  |  | last |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent at last=Location |
| 4 | **knock** | past · progressive | the barrel |  |  | rocks |  |  | vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against rock=Location |
| 5 | **cheer** | past · passive |  | Prince |  |  |  | a little *obl:unmarked* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 6 | **think** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** | past | barrel | land and a reef in the sea |  |  |  | probably *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 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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