---
title: ‘If it had not had a knob on the top, then I had not got it,’ answer… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If it had not had a knob on the top, then I had not got it,’ answered the king. Who acts: Sword, I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9, sentence 61

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‘If it had not had a knob on the top, then I had not got it,’ answered the king.

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**Who acts:** Sword, I · **What happens:** not have, not get, answer · **To what, where:** knob, top, Sword, king

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 9. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Sword, I), 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:pg3454:9:61
# text = ‘If it had not had a knob on the top, then I had not got it,’ answered the king.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	knob	knob	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	on	on	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	parataxis	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
21	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **have** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | Sword | a knob |  | the top |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knob=Patient |
| 2 | **not** **get** | past · perfect | I | Sword |  |  | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the king |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent king=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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