---
title: They never knew when they were safe from him, as he could change him… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: They never knew when they were safe from him, as he could change himself into a man, woman or child, a stick, a goat, a ploughshare. Who acts: tricks, France. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They never knew when they were safe from him, as he could change himself into a man, woman or child, a stick, a goat, a ploughshare.

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**Who acts:** tricks, France · **What happens:** not know, be, change · **To what, where:** France

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tricks, France), 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:pg3454:10:24
# text = They never knew when they were safe from him, as he could change himself into a man, woman or child, a stick, a goat, a ploughshare.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
15	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obj	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
21	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
30	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	ploughshare	ploughshare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | tricks *= trick* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | tricks *= trick* |  |  |  |  | from France; safe *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **change** | could | France | France |  |  |  | into a man and woman or child and a stick and a goat and a ploughshare *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Patient into man=Result |

<!-- .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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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