---
title: “Merchant!” said she, “he is no more a merchant than I am!” and she… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Merchant!” said she, “he is no more a merchant than I am!” and she told him the whole story, assuring him that it was a plot of the robbers of the forest, of whom only three were left, and that the white and red chalk marks had something to do with it. Who acts: Merchant, Morgiana, story, white cha
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Forty Thieves, sentence 119

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“Merchant!” said she, “he is no more a merchant than I am!” and she told him the whole story, assuring him that it was a plot of the robbers of the forest, of whom only three were left, and that the white and red chalk marks had something to do with it.

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**Who acts:** Merchant, Morgiana, story, white chalk marks · **What happens:** say, not be, tell, assure, be, leave · **To what, where:** whole story, merchant, plot, three, something · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Forty Thieves. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Merchant, Morgiana, story, white chalk marks), 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:pg503:34:119
# text = “Merchant!” said she, “he is no more a merchant than I am!” and she told him the whole story, assuring him that it was a plot of the robbers of the forest, of whom only three were left, and that the white and red chalk marks had something to do with it.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	no	no	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	nsubj	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	merchant	merchant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
15	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
28	assuring	assure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	34	mark	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	plot	plot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	advcl	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nmod	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
42	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
43	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	47	obl	_	_
44	only	only	ADV	RB	_	45	advmod	_	_
45	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	47	nsubj:pass	_	_
46	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	aux:pass	_	_
47	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
49	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
50	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	57	mark	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
52	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	conj	_	_
55	chalk	chalk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	56	compound	_	_
56	marks	mark	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	57	nsubj	_	_
57	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
58	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	57	obj	_	_
59	to	to	PART	TO	_	60	mark	_	_
60	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	58	acl	_	_
61	with	with	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: express* | past | Merchant |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | Morgiana |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Morgiana | the whole story | merchant |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient story=Topic |
| 4 | **assure** | gerund | Morgiana *not said here* |  | merchant |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 5 | **is a** | past | story | a plot |  |  |  | of the robbers of the forest | tree rules |
| 6 | **leave** | past · passive |  | three |  |  |  |  | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location PP.destination»: subject=Source of whom=Destination |
| 7 | **have** | past | the white chalk marks | something |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Patient |
| 8 | **do** | to-infinitive | the white chalk marks *not said here* | something *not said here* |  |  |  | with mark | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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