---
title: I will lock something into this box before me, and if he guesses wha… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I will lock something into this box before me, and if he guesses what it is, the horse is his, and if he doesn’t then it is yours.’ Who acts: I, king, money, horse. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/15/66/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I will lock something into this box before me, and if he guesses what it is, the horse is his, and if he doesn’t then it is yours.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, king, money, horse · **What happens:** lock, guess, be · **To what, where:** something, box, king, yours

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 15. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, king, money, horse), 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:pg3454:15:66
# text = I will lock something into this box before me, and if he guesses what it is, the horse is his, and if he doesn’t then it is yours.’
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	lock	lock	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	box	box	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	before	before	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	guesses	guess	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
25	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
29	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
30	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
32	yours	your	PRON	PRP	Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lock** | future | I | something |  | this box | before me |  | vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 2 | **guess** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | king |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present | money |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | the horse | king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | present · do-support | money | yours |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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