---
title: “The pedlar should keep him from eating my cabbages,” said Nur Mahom… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “The pedlar should keep him from eating my cabbages,” said Nur Mahomed; “if he comes this evening here again I’ll cut off his tail for him!” Who acts: pedlar, Nur. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate, sentence 68

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“The pedlar should keep him from eating my cabbages,” said Nur Mahomed; “if he comes this evening here again I’ll cut off his tail for him!”

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**Who acts:** pedlar, Nur · **What happens:** keep, eat, say, come, 'll off, cut off · **To what, where:** donkey, cabbages, tail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story Of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pedlar, Nur), 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:pg3282:33:68
# text = “The pedlar should keep him from eating my cabbages,” said Nur Mahomed; “if he comes this evening here again I’ll cut off his tail for him!”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	pedlar	pedlar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	cabbages	cabbage	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	Nur	Nur	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
15	Mahomed	Mahomed	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
21	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	_
24	again	again	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’ll	'll	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
27	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	amod	_	_
28	off	off	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
31	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** *in a quote* | should | the pedlar | donkey |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | gerund | the pedlar *not said here* | my cabbages |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cabbage=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | Nur |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | pedlar |  |  | here | evening |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **'ll off** *in a quote* | present | Nur | pedlar's tail |  |  | again | for pedlar | tree rules |
| 6 | **cut off** *in a quote* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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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