---
title: ‘I had one: he was called Jem, and would have been a tall sturdy lad… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I had one: he was called Jem, and would have been a tall sturdy lad of twenty by this time, and able to help me well. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, 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 2, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I had one: he was called Jem, and would have been a tall sturdy lad of twenty by this time, and able to help me well.

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**What happens:** call, be, help · **To what, where:** son, tall sturdy lad, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg641:27:11
# text = ‘I had one: he was called Jem, and would have been a tall sturdy lad of twenty by this time, and able to help me well.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	Jem	Jem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
14	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
17	sturdy	sturdy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nmod	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	xcomp	_	_
29	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past · passive |  | son |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **is a** | would · perfect |  | a tall sturdy lad |  |  | time | of twenty | tree rules |
| 3 | **help** | to-infinitive |  |  | me |  |  | well *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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