---
title: ‘If my father had that stick, he would beat the dogs and cats that s… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If my father had that stick, he would beat the dogs and cats that steal the king’s meat,’ replied the boy. Who acts: father, dogs. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 76

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‘If my father had that stick, he would beat the dogs and cats that steal the king’s meat,’ replied the boy.

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**Who acts:** father, dogs · **What happens:** have, beat, steal, reply · **To what, where:** stick, dogs, meat, boy · **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 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, dogs), 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:pg3454:28:76
# text = ‘If my father had that stick, he would beat the dogs and cats that steal the king’s meat,’ replied the boy.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	beat	beat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	cats	cat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	steal	steal	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
24	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | my father | that stick |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Patient |
| 2 | **beat** | would | father | the dogs and cats |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location dog=Theme |
| 3 | **steal** | present | the dogs and cats | the king's meat |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location meat=Theme |
| 4 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the boy |  |  |  |  | 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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