---
title: ‘Tell me if thou knowest aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was t… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Tell me if thou knowest aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old from between his mother and the wall.’ Who acts: you, thou. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 98

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Tell me if thou knowest aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old from between his mother and the wall.’

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**Who acts:** you, thou · **What happens:** tell, know, take · **To what, where:** me, aught, son · **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 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, thou), 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:pg3454:39:98
# text = ‘Tell me if thou knowest aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old from between his mother and the wall.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nsubj	_	_
6	knowest	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
7	aught	aught	PRON	NN	PronType=Ind	6	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Mabon	Mabon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Modron	Modron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
18	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
19	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	ccomp	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	between	between	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **know** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | thou | aught |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **take** | past · passive |  | the son of Modron |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Destination |

<!-- .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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