---
title: 'Now,' said the cunning creature to himself, 'I shall be able in the… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Now,' said the cunning creature to himself, 'I shall be able in the dark to steal his meat!' Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/4/10/)

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 4, sentence 10

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'Now,' said the cunning creature to himself, 'I shall be able in the dark to steal his meat!'

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say, be, steal · **To what, where:** cunning creature, Gudu, dark, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, 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.

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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:pg3027:4:10
# text = 'Now,' said the cunning creature to himself, 'I shall be able in the dark to steal his meat!'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
16	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the cunning creature | Gudu |  | now |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent creature=Topic to himself=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | shall | I |  |  | the dark |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **steal** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | Gudu's meat |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location meat=Theme |

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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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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