---
title: ‘Oh, just take a very large bread-knife, sharpen it, and pretend tha… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Oh, just take a very large bread-knife, sharpen it, and pretend that you are going to cut straight through the third of the four loaves which are lying on the kitchen table in the King’s palace—count them from right to left—and you will soon find her,’ said Dapplegrim. Who acts: you, four loaves, r
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Dwarfs, part 3, sentence 35

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‘Oh, just take a very large bread-knife, sharpen it, and pretend that you are going to cut straight through the third of the four loaves which are lying on the kitchen table in the King’s palace—count them from right to left—and you will soon find her,’ said Dapplegrim.

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**Who acts:** you, four loaves, right, Dapplegrim · **What happens:** take, sharpen, pretend, go, cut, lie · **To what, where:** large bread knife, knife, third, kitchen table, tons, right · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dwarfs, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, four loaves, right, Dapplegrim), 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:pg540:39:35
# text = ‘Oh, just take a very large bread-knife, sharpen it, and pretend that you are going to cut straight through the third of the four loaves which are lying on the kitchen table in the King’s palace—count them from right to left—and you will soon find her,’ said Dapplegrim.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	just	just	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	60	ccomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
9	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	sharpen	sharpen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	pretend	pretend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
25	through	through	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	third	third	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	loaves	loaf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
32	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	34	nsubj	_	_
33	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	acl:relcl	_	_
35	on	on	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	table	table	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
39	in	in	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	43	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	’s	's	PART	POS	_	41	case	_	_
43	palace	palace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	—	-	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	count	count	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
46	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	45	obj	_	_
47	from	from	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obl	_	_
49	to	to	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
50	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	56	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	56	cc	_	_
53	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	56	nsubj	_	_
54	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	56	aux	_	_
55	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	56	advmod	_	_
56	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
57	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	56	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
59	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
60	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
61	Dapplegrim	Dapplegrim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	60	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	60	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | infinitive |  | a large bread knife |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme |
| 2 | **sharpen** | infinitive |  | knife |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **pretend** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | present · progressive | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **cut** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the third of the four loaves |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset third=Product |
| 6 | **lie** | present · progressive | the four loaves |  |  | the kitchen table in the King's palace |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on table=Location |
| 7 | **count** | infinitive |  | tons *= ton* |  | right |  |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 8 | **leave** | past | right *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **find** | future | you | Princess |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Topic |
| 10 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Dapplegrim |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=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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