---
title: ‘Yes, indeed, seven years ago, though it seems but yesterday that my… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes, indeed, seven years ago, though it seems but yesterday that my wife came back howling and crying, and saying the child had not come back all day. Who acts: it, wife, child. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 2, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Yes, indeed, seven years ago, though it seems but yesterday that my wife came back howling and crying, and saying the child had not come back all day.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** it, wife, child · **What happens:** seem, come back, howl, cry, say, not come back · **To what, where:** yesterday · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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: who acts (it, wife, child), 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:pg641:27:17
# text = ‘Yes, indeed, seven years ago, though it seems but yesterday that my wife came back howling and crying, and saying the child had not come back all day.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
8	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
14	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	obl	_	_
16	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	back	back	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	howling	howl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	parataxis	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
31	back	back	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	33	det	_	_
33	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | it |  |  |  | yesterday | ago *property* | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come back** | past | my wife | yesterday |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **howl** | gerund | my wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | my wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **not** **come back** | past | the child |  |  |  | day |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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