---
title: If you were to tell them that those sheep belonged to an ogre, they… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If you were to tell them that those sheep belonged to an ogre, they would kill them, and then the ogre would kill you! Who acts: you, sheep, ogre. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25, sentence 109

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If you were to tell them that those sheep belonged to an ogre, they would kill them, and then the ogre would kill you!

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, sheep, ogre · **What happens:** tell, belong, kill · **To what, where:** courtiers, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, sheep, ogre), 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:pg2435:25:109
# text = If you were to tell them that those sheep belonged to an ogre, they would kill them, and then the ogre would kill you!
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
18	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ogre	ogre	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | past | you |  | courtiers *= courtier* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **belong** | past | that sheep |  |  |  |  | to a ogre | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **kill** | would | sheep | courtiers *= courtier* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | would | the ogre | you |  |  | then |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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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