---
title: ‘Why, I could have sworn I had been a squirrel, a companion of guine… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why, I could have sworn I had been a squirrel, a companion of guinea pigs and such creatures, and had become a great cook, too. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1, sentence 96

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Why, I could have sworn I had been a squirrel, a companion of guinea pigs and such creatures, and had become a great cook, too.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** swear, be, become · **To what, where:** squirrel, great cook

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg641:26:96
# text = ‘Why, I could have sworn I had been a squirrel, a companion of guinea pigs and such creatures, and had become a great cook, too.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
7	sworn	swear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	squirrel	squirrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	companion	companion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	guinea	guinea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	pigs	pig	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	creatures	creature	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	cook	cook	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
30	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **swear** | could · perfect | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past · perfect | I | a squirrel |  |  |  | a companion of guinea pigs and such creatures *nmod* | tree rules |
| 3 | **become** | past · perfect | I *not said here* | a great cook |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 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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