---
title: “There must be some thing you could take, if you would only say what… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “There must be some thing you could take, if you would only say what it is,” implored his wife. Who acts: you, thing. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, 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/pg3282/8/19/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8, sentence 19

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“There must be some thing you could take, if you would only say what it is,” implored his wife.

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**Who acts:** you, thing · **What happens:** be, take, say, implore · **To what, where:** thing, wife · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, thing), 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:pg3282:8:19
# text = “There must be some thing you could take, if you would only say what it is,” implored his wife.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
5	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
16	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	15	ccomp	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
21	implored	implore	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | some thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | could | you | some thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | would | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | thing |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **implore** | past | some thing |  | husband's wife |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient |

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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 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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