---
title: ‘For who knows,’ he said to himself, ‘whether I may not have some go… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘For who knows,’ he said to himself, ‘whether I may not have some good luck again.’ Who acts: man, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 5

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‘For who knows,’ he said to himself, ‘whether I may not have some good luck again.’

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**Who acts:** man, I · **What happens:** know, say, not have · **To what, where:** man, good luck · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, I), 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:pg641:15:5
# text = ‘For who knows,’ he said to himself, ‘whether I may not have some good luck again.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
18	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
21	again	again	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  | man |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **have** | may | I | some good luck |  |  | again |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent luck=Patient |

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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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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