---
title: Why, had I chosen, I could have robbed the royal treasury, have brib… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Why, had I chosen, I could have robbed the royal treasury, have bribed your judges to let me off, and built a white marble palace with what was left. Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/4/131/)

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why, had I chosen, I could have robbed the royal treasury, have bribed your judges to let me off, and built a white marble palace with what was left.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** have, choose, rob, bribe, let off, build · **To what, where:** I, judges, me, white marble palace

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg2435:4:131
# text = Why, had I chosen, I could have robbed the royal treasury, have bribed your judges to let me off, and built a white marble palace with what was left.
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	chosen	choose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux	_	_
10	robbed	rob	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	royal	royal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	treasury	treasury	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	bribed	bribe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	conj	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	judges	judge	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	off	off	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	built	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
28	marble	marble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
30	with	with	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	nmod	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **choose** | participle | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **rob** | could · perfect · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bribe** | present · perfect |  | your judges |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent judge=Patient |
| 5 | **let off** | to-infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 6 | **build** | past |  | a white marble palace |  |  |  |  | vn base-97.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent palace=Theme with what=Source |
| 7 | **leave** | past · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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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