---
title: ‘If you think, sir knight,’ says the Black Thief, ‘that the danger I… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If you think, sir knight,’ says the Black Thief, ‘that the danger I was in surpasses that of this young man, will you pardon him his crime?’ Who acts: you, Black Thief, I, danger. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree an
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If you think, sir knight,’ says the Black Thief, ‘that the danger I was in surpasses that of this young man, will you pardon him his crime?’

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**Who acts:** you, Black Thief, I, danger, Thief · **What happens:** think, say, be, surpass, pardon, incriminate · **To what, where:** sir knight, danger, that, Thief · **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 (you, Black Thief, I, danger), 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:pg540:8:66
# text = ‘If you think, sir knight,’ says the Black Thief, ‘that the danger I was in surpasses that of this young man, will you pardon him his crime?’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	knight	knight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
10	says	say	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	in	in	ADV	RB	_	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	surpasses	surpass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	obj	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	27	det	_	_
26	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	pardon	pardon	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	conj	_	_
32	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	crime	crime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | sir knight |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot knight=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Black Thief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | I | the danger *not said here* |  |  |  | in *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **surpass** | present | the danger | that |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot that=Theme |
| 5 | **pardon** | future | you | Thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **incriminate** |  | Thief |  |  |  |  |  | nom crime «act 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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