---
title: They were sure of what it was, and thought they had as good reason a… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They were sure of what it was, and thought they had as good reason as ever they would have to call on the Witch, and so they did. Who acts: lives. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hermod and Hadvor (32), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, Hermod and Hadvor (32), sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were sure of what it was, and thought they had as good reason as ever they would have to call on the Witch, and so they did.

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**Who acts:** lives · **What happens:** be, think, have, call, do · **To what, where:** good reason · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hermod and Hadvor (32). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lives), 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:pg640:49:86
# text = They were sure of what it was, and thought they had as good reason as ever they would have to call on the Witch, and so they did.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	obl	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
13	as	as	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	20	advmod	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	xcomp	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | lives *= life* |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | past | lives *= life* | good reason |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient |
| 4 | **have** | would | lives *= life* |  |  |  | ever |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **call** | to-infinitive | lives *= life* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | on the Witch | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **do** | past | lives *= life* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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