---
title: To work; the rats will be paid one _gros_ a head as you ask.’ — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To work; the rats will be paid one _gros_ a head as you ask.’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 29

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To work; the rats will be paid one \_gros\_ a head as you ask.’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** work, pay, ask · **To what, where:** rats

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg540:32:29
# text = To work; the rats will be paid one _gros_ a head as you ask.’
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
6	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	paid	pay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	obj	_	_
10	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	gros	gros	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	8	punct	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pay** | future · passive |  | the rats |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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