---
title: ‘So he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘So he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the knight was in bed and asleep, and he killed him as he lay. Who acts: Rumour, knight. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Wonderful Growth of the Beanstalk, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Wonderful Growth of the Beanstalk, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘So he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the knight was in bed and asleep, and he killed him as he lay.

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**Who acts:** Rumour, knight · **What happens:** bribe, let, be, kill, lie · **To what, where:** false servant, Rumour, castle, bed

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Wonderful Growth of the Beanstalk. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Rumour, knight), 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:pg540:16:19
# text = ‘So he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the knight was in bed and asleep, and he killed him as he lay.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	bribed	bribe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	inside	inside	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	20	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bribe** | past | Rumour | a false servant |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Patient |
| 2 | **let** | to-infinitive | Rumour *not said here* | Rumour |  | the castle and bed |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | the knight |  |  | bed |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **be** |  | the knight *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **kill** | past | knight | Rumour |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 6 | **lie** | past | Rumour |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «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 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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