---
title: ‘Good master, what shall we do for thee?’ asked they, and he answere… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Good master, what shall we do for thee?’ asked they, and he answered, ‘Bring me the finest horse that ever was seen, and the grandest dress, and glass shoes.’ Who acts: we, Good master, master. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency t
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/17/41/)

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Good master, what shall we do for thee?’ asked they, and he answered, ‘Bring me the finest horse that ever was seen, and the grandest dress, and glass shoes.’

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**Who acts:** we, Good master, master · **What happens:** do, ask, answer, bring, see · **To what, where:** Good master, grandest dress, finest horse, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, Good master, master), 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:pg3454:17:41
# text = ‘Good master, what shall we do for thee?’ asked they, and he answered, ‘Bring me the finest horse that ever was seen, and the grandest dress, and glass shoes.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	obj	_	_
6	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	appos	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	finest	fine	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	25	amod	_	_
25	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	29	nsubj	_	_
27	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	29	advmod	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	seen	see	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	grandest	grand	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	34	amod	_	_
34	dress	dress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
36	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
37	glass	glass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	shoes	shoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	38	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	38	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | shall | we | Good master |  |  |  | for thee | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Good master | the grandest dress |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | master |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bring** | infinitive |  | the finest horse | me |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent i=Destination horse=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | past · passive |  | the finest horse |  |  | ever |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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