---
title: ‘I will, sir,’ said Maurice, answering the question on the safe side… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I will, sir,’ said Maurice, answering the question on the safe side, for you never yet knew piper or schoolmaster who refused his drink. Who acts: I, Maurice, you, piper. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 18, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I will, sir,’ said Maurice, answering the question on the safe side, for you never yet knew piper or schoolmaster who refused his drink.

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**Who acts:** I, Maurice, you, piper · **What happens:** sir, say, answer, not know, refuse · **To what, where:** question, safe side, piper, drink · **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 18. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Maurice, you, piper), 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:pg3454:18:19
# text = ‘I will, sir,’ said Maurice, answering the question on the safe side, for you never yet knew piper or schoolmaster who refused his drink.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	Maurice	Maurice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	answering	answer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
24	piper	piper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	schoolmaster	schoolmaster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
27	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	refused	refuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sir** | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Maurice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | gerund | Maurice *not said here* | the question |  | the safe side |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent question=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **know** | past | you | piper or schoolmaster |  |  | yet |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer piper=Stimulus |
| 5 | **refuse** | past | piper or schoolmaster | Maurice's drink |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent drink=Theme |

<!-- .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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