---
title: But, listen! whoever overhears and tells what we have said will be t… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But, listen! whoever overhears and tells what we have said will be turned to stone up to his knees.” Who acts: you, whoever, we. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But, listen! whoever overhears and tells what we have said will be turned to stone up to his knees.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, whoever, we · **What happens:** listen, overhear, tell, say, turn up · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, 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 (you, whoever, we), 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:pg2435:2:9
# text = But, listen! whoever overhears and tells what we have said will be turned to stone up to his knees.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	listen	listen	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
5	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	overhears	overhear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	obj	_	_
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	aux:pass	_	_
15	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **overhear** | present | whoever |  |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | whoever *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | present · perfect | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **turn up** | future · passive |  |  |  |  |  | to stone; to midday's knees | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: what=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 Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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