---
title: ‘Yes, I know, my boy,’ said the father, ‘but if you marry our daught… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Yes, I know, my boy,’ said the father, ‘but if you marry our daughter what shall you call your children? Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Six Sillies, sentence 18

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‘Yes, I know, my boy,’ said the father, ‘but if you marry our daughter what shall you call your children?

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** know, say, marry, call · **To what, where:** boy, father, daughter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Six Sillies. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg540:28:18
# text = ‘Yes, I know, my boy,’ said the father, ‘but if you marry our daughter what shall you call your children?
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	marry	marry	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl:relcl	_	_
26	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | I | my boy |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer boy=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **marry** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | our daughter |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |
| 4 | **call** | shall | you | the father |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme child=Result |

<!-- .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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