---
title: Perhaps if the Shifty Lad’s mother knew anything of this, she may ha… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Perhaps if the Shifty Lad’s mother knew anything of this, she may have thought that by this time her son might be tired of stealing, and ready to try some honest trade. Who acts: mother, son. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, with its dependency tree 
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 2, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Perhaps if the Shifty Lad’s mother knew anything of this, she may have thought that by this time her son might be tired of stealing, and ready to try some honest trade.

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**Who acts:** mother, son · **What happens:** know, think, be, try · **To what, where:** anything, that, honest trade · **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 (mother, son), 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:pg3454:2:86
# text = Perhaps if the Shifty Lad’s mother knew anything of this, she may have thought that by this time her son might be tired of stealing, and ready to try some honest trade.
1	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	Shifty	shifty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	Lad	Lad	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’s	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	_
9	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	obj	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
23	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
25	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	ccomp	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	stealing	stealing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	ready	ready	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	35	det	_	_
34	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | the Shifty Lad's mother | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | may · perfect | mother | that |  |  | time | perhaps *property* | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot that=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | might | mother's son |  |  |  |  | of stealing; tired *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | mother's son *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **try** | to-infinitive | mother's son *not said here* | some honest trade |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trade=Eventuality |

<!-- .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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