---
title: “I have kept my most precious treasure till the last,” said the old… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “I have kept my most precious treasure till the last,” said the old woman; “but let me go first, for the stairs are steep, and you might easily break your leg.” Who acts: old woman, stairs, you, my. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, wi
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I have kept my most precious treasure till the last,” said the old woman; “but let me go first, for the stairs are steep, and you might easily break your leg.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, stairs, you, my · **What happens:** keep, say, let, go, be, break · **To what, where:** precious treasure, old woman, leg · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, stairs, you, my), 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:pg3282:38:30
# text = “I have kept my most precious treasure till the last,” said the old woman; “but let me go first, for the stairs are steep, and you might easily break your leg.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
6	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	7	advmod	_	_
7	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	till	till	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
14	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	stairs	stair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	nsubj	_	_
29	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
30	steep	steep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
37	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** *in a quote* | present · perfect | the old woman *= woman* | my precious treasure |  |  | till the last |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent treasure=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the old woman *= woman* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | the old woman *= woman* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | first *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the stairs |  |  |  |  | steep *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **break** *in a quote* | might | you | your leg |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer leg=Patient |
| 7 | **treasure** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom treasure «possession transitive»: poss=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 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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