---
title: ‘Ah! you are the better thief,’ said the Black Rogue’s wife; and the… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Ah! you are the better thief,’ said the Black Rogue’s wife; and the Black Rogue added: Who acts: you, better thief, Black Rogue. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 16

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‘Ah! you are the better thief,’ said the Black Rogue’s wife; and the Black Rogue added:

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**Who acts:** you, better thief, Black Rogue · **What happens:** be, say, add · **To what, where:** better thief · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, better thief, Black Rogue), 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:pg3454:2:16
# text = ‘Ah! you are the better thief,’ said the Black Rogue’s wife; and the Black Rogue added:
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	amod	_	_
8	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Rogue	Rogue	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	Rogue	Rogue	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	added	add	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | you | the better thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the better thief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **add** *speech: assert* | past | the Black Rogue |  |  |  |  |  | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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 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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