---
title: ‘That happens well,’ says the Thief of Sloan, ‘for I like him best m… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘That happens well,’ says the Thief of Sloan, ‘for I like him best myself, and have reserved the most curious passage for the last on his account.’ Who acts: That, I, Thief. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 107

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‘That happens well,’ says the Thief of Sloan, ‘for I like him best myself, and have reserved the most curious passage for the last on his account.’

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**Who acts:** That, I, Thief · **What happens:** happen, say, like, reserve, account · **To what, where:** Thief, curious passage · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, I, Thief), 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:pg540:8:107
# text = ‘That happens well,’ says the Thief of Sloan, ‘for I like him best myself, and have reserved the most curious passage for the last on his account.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
3	happens	happen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
4	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Sloan	Sloan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	obj	_	_
19	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	reserved	reserve	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	16	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	26	advmod	_	_
26	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	passage	passage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	nmod	_	_
31	on	on	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | present | That |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | the Thief of Sloan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **like** | present | I | Thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **reserve** | present · perfect |  | the curious passage |  |  |  | for the last | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent passage=Theme for last=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **account** |  | Thief |  |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: poss=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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