---
title: When he told us not to go into that room he must have known what he… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he told us not to go into that room he must have known what he was saying, and have had a good reason for saying it.’ Who acts: father, room, good reason. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Enchanted Pig, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he told us not to go into that room he must have known what he was saying, and have had a good reason for saying it.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** father, room, good reason · **What happens:** tell, not go, know, say, have · **To what, where:** us, room, father, good reason, reason · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Pig. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, room, good reason), 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:pg540:12:22
# text = When he told us not to go into that room he must have known what he was saying, and have had a good reason for saying it.’
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
4	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux	_	_
14	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl:relcl	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	18	obj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
27	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	25	acl	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | father |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent we=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | father *not said here* |  |  | that room |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into room=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **know** | must · perfect · passive | that room *not said here* | father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
| 5 | **have** | present · perfect |  | a good reason |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Patient |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | a good reason *not said here* | reason |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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