---
title: But I could bet you were not always in this plumage--wasn’t I a squi… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But I could bet you were not always in this plumage--wasn’t I a squirrel myself for a time?’ Who acts: I, you, plumage. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3, 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 3, sentence 13

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But I could bet you were not always in this plumage--wasn’t I a squirrel myself for a time?’

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**Who acts:** I, you, plumage · **What happens:** bet, not be · **To what, where:** plumage, squirrel

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, plumage), 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:pg641:28:13
# text = But I could bet you were not always in this plumage--wasn’t I a squirrel myself for a time?’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	bet	bet	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	11	advmod	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	11	det	_	_
11	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	squirrel	squirrel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
18	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	nmod	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bet** | could | I |  |  |  | time |  | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | you |  |  | this plumage |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | past | this plumage | a squirrel |  |  |  | myself *nmod* | 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 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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