---
title: I heard one of them say to the other that if the Black Thief came on… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I heard one of them say to the other that if the Black Thief came on them while they slept, he would not leave them a penny. Who acts: I, one, Black Thief, bags. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 72

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I heard one of them say to the other that if the Black Thief came on them while they slept, he would not leave them a penny.

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**Who acts:** I, one, Black Thief, bags, Thief · **What happens:** hear, say, come, sleep, not leave · **To what, where:** one, penny, bags · **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 (I, one, Black Thief, bags), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg540:685`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg540:8:72
# text = I heard one of them say to the other that if the Black Thief came on them while they slept, he would not leave them a penny.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obl	_	_
10	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Black	Black	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | I | one of bags |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | one of bags *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the other | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to other=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 3 | **come** | past | the Black Thief |  |  |  |  | on bags *= bag* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on they=Location |
| 4 | **sleep** | past | bags *= bag* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **leave** | would | Thief | a penny | bags *= bag* |  |  |  | vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent they=Theme penny=Attribute |

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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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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