---
title: They thought themselves so clever, that if they had known only half… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They thought themselves so clever, that if they had known only half of what they did know, it would have been quite enough. Who acts: sons. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Steadfast Tin-soldier, sentence 83

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They thought themselves so clever, that if they had known only half of what they did know, it would have been quite enough.

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**Who acts:** sons · **What happens:** think, know, be · **To what, where:** sons

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Steadfast Tin-soldier. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons), 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:pg640:50:83
# text = They thought themselves so clever, that if they had known only half of what they did know, it would have been quite enough.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	2	obj	_	_
4	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	clever	clever	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	parataxis	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	half	half	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	cop	_	_
24	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | sons *= son* | sons *= son* |  |  |  | clever *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot themselves=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | past · perfect · passive |  | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **know** | past · do-support | sons *= son* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | infinitive · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | enough *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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