---
title: But when you seek to steal it, take heed that its sheath touches not… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But when you seek to steal it, take heed that its sheath touches nothing inside the house, or ill will befall you.' Who acts: you, sheath. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 7, sentence 78

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But when you seek to steal it, take heed that its sheath touches nothing inside the house, or ill will befall you.'

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**Who acts:** you, sheath · **What happens:** seek, steal, take, touch, befall · **To what, where:** Sword, heed, nothing, house, you

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, sheath), 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:pg3027:7:78
# text = But when you seek to steal it, take heed that its sheath touches nothing inside the house, or ill will befall you.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seek	seek	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	heed	heed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	sheath	sheath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	touches	touch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	14	obj	_	_
16	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	befall	befall	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **steal** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | Sword |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme |
| 3 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | heed |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heed=Theme |
| 4 | **touch** | present | Sword's sheath | nothing |  | the house |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme nothing=Co-Theme |
| 5 | **befall** | future | you *not said here* | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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