---
title: “Take them back to your master as soon as you can,” said the old man… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Take them back to your master as soon as you can,” said the old man; but the son only laughed, and said: Who acts: old man, son. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/119/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/) / 119

# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26, sentence 119

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Take them back to your master as soon as you can,” said the old man; but the son only laughed, and said:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old man, son · **What happens:** take back, say, laugh · **To what, where:** cattle, master · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, son), 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:pg2435:26:119
# text = “Take them back to your master as soon as you can,” said the old man; but the son only laughed, and said:
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	back	back	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	as	as	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	2	advmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
23	only	only	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take back** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | cattle |  | your master |  | soon *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to master=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the son |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/118/)
- next →: [sentence 120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/120/)
- ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/26/)

