---
title: The henwife said, "Say you will not take him unless they give you a… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The henwife said, "Say you will not take him unless they give you a coat of silver cloth." Who acts: henwife, you, geese. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg14241/31/74/)

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 17, sentence 74

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The henwife said, "Say you will not take him unless they give you a coat of silver cloth."

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**Who acts:** henwife, you, geese · **What happens:** say, not take, give · **To what, where:** henwife, coat, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (henwife, you, geese), 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:pg14241:31:74
# text = The henwife said, "Say you will not take him unless they give you a coat of silver cloth."
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	henwife	henwife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	coat	coat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the henwife |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **take** *in a quote* | future | you |  | henwife |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 4 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | geese *= goose* | a coat of silver cloth | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient coat=Theme |

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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:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (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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