---
title: Whether the thread was quite as even as usual I really cannot say, b… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whether the thread was quite as even as usual I really cannot say, but she went on spinning till the King’s son had ridden off. Who acts: thread, I, girl. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whether the thread was quite as even as usual I really cannot say, but she went on spinning till the King’s son had ridden off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** thread, I, girl · **What happens:** be, not say, go, spin, ride off · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thread, I, girl), 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:pg7277:44:21
# text = Whether the thread was quite as even as usual I really cannot say, but she went on spinning till the King’s son had ridden off.
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
5	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
7	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	as	as	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	advcl	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	really	really	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
19	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
20	spinning	spin	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
21	till	till	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
26	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	ridden	ride	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	ccomp	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the thread |  |  |  |  | usual *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | can | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** | past | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **spin** | gerund | girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **ride off** | past · perfect | girl *not said here* |  |  |  | till the King's son |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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