---
title: ‘If you seek to trick me this time, the highest stone will soon be t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If you seek to trick me this time, the highest stone will soon be the lowest,’ said he, and the king and queen trembled, but they could not bear to give up their boy. Who acts: you, highest stone, lowest, father. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, wi
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If you seek to trick me this time, the highest stone will soon be the lowest,’ said he, and the king and queen trembled, but they could not bear to give up their boy.

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**Who acts:** you, highest stone, lowest, father, stones · **What happens:** seek, trick, be, say, tremble, not bear · **To what, where:** me, 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 (you, highest stone, lowest, father), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg3454:28:79
# text = ‘If you seek to trick me this time, the highest stone will soon be the lowest,’ said he, and the king and queen trembled, but they could not bear to give up their boy.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seek	seek	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	trick	trick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	highest	high	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
15	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	lowest	low	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
29	trembled	tremble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
31	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
33	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
34	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	conj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	up	up	ADP	RP	_	37	compound:prt	_	_
39	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **trick** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | me |  |  | time |  | vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **is** | future | the highest stone |  |  |  |  | low, soon *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the lowest |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **tremble** | participle | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **not** **bear** | could | stones *= stone* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **give up** | to-infinitive | stones *= stone* *not said here* | stones's boy |  |  |  |  | vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Source |

<!-- .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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