---
title: ‘I will give thee a sword which is such a sword that it can conquer… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I will give thee a sword which is such a sword that it can conquer a whole army, let it be ever so great,’ replied the woman. Who acts: I, sword, eye. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, Mother Holle, part 1, sentence 89

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I will give thee a sword which is such a sword that it can conquer a whole army, let it be ever so great,’ replied the woman.

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**Who acts:** I, sword, eye · **What happens:** give, be, conquer, let, reply · **To what, where:** sword, thee, whole army, eye, woman

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Mother Holle, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, sword, eye), 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:pg540:44:89
# text = ‘I will give thee a sword which is such a sword that it can conquer a whole army, let it be ever so great,’ replied the woman.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	iobj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	12	det:predet	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	conquer	conquer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	acl	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	26	advmod	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
29	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | future | I | a sword and such sword | thee |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient sword=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | present | a sword and such sword | such sword |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **conquer** | can | eye | a whole army |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent army=Patient |
| 4 | **let** | infinitive | I *not said here* | eye |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **be** | infinitive | eye *not said here* |  |  |  |  | great *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the woman |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent woman=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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