---
title: “I don't know, sir,” said the girl, “I was picked up just here after… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “I don't know, sir,” said the girl, “I was picked up just here after having been brought down by the river about fifteen years ago.” Who acts: girl, river. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Fish and the Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Fish and the Ring, sentence 20

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“I don't know, sir,” said the girl, “I was picked up just here after having been brought down by the river about fifteen years ago.”

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**Who acts:** girl, river · **What happens:** not know, say, pick up, bring down · **To what, where:** girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Fish and the Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girl, river), 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:pg7439:41:20
# text = “I don't know, sir,” said the girl, “I was picked up just here after having been brought down by the river about fifteen years ago.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	picked	pick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	just	just	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
21	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	having	have	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	aux:pass	_	_
24	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	advcl	_	_
25	down	down	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	by	by	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
29	about	about	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | the girl *= girl* |  |  |  |  | sir *vocative* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pick up** *in a quote* | past · passive |  | the girl *= girl* |  | here |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 4 | **bring down** *in a quote* | gerund · perfect · passive | the river |  |  |  |  | ago *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: 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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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