---
title: “I would give a thousand gold pieces to anyone who would tell me the… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I would give a thousand gold pieces to anyone who would tell me the truth about this,” cried he, and at the words Abu Nowas sat up. Who acts: Sultan, words. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every c
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I would give a thousand gold pieces to anyone who would tell me the truth about this,” cried he, and at the words Abu Nowas sat up.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Sultan, words · **What happens:** give, tell, cry, sit up · **To what, where:** thousand gold pieces, anyone, truth, Sultan · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sultan, words), 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:pg2435:29:20
# text = “I would give a thousand gold pieces to anyone who would tell me the truth about this,” cried he, and at the words Abu Nowas sat up.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	parataxis	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
7	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	nmod	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
12	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	about	about	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
21	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
28	Abu	Abu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	appos	_	_
29	Nowas	Nowas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	_
30	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
31	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *in a quote* | would | Sultan | thousand gold pieces | anyone |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent piece=Theme to anyone=Recipient |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | would |  | the truth | Sultan |  |  | about this | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient truth=Topic |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Sultan |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **sit up** | past | the words |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: 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:** «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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