---
title: ‘My way of living, sir,’ says the Black Thief, ‘was not good, as I t… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My way of living, sir,’ says the Black Thief, ‘was not good, as I told you before; and being at a certain time fairly run out of cash, and meeting with no enterprise worthy of notice, I was reduced to great straits. Who acts: Black Thief, I, certain time. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andre
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 89

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‘My way of living, sir,’ says the Black Thief, ‘was not good, as I told you before; and being at a certain time fairly run out of cash, and meeting with no enterprise worthy of notice, I was reduced to great straits.

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**Who acts:** Black Thief, I, certain time · **What happens:** say, not be, tell, be, run, meet · **To what, where:** you, cash, I, great straits · **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 (Black Thief, I, certain time), 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:pg540:8:89
# text = ‘My way of living, sir,’ says the Black Thief, ‘was not good, as I told you before; and being at a certain time fairly run out of cash, and meeting with no enterprise worthy of notice, I was reduced to great straits.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	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	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	before	before	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	cop	_	_
28	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
32	fairly	fairly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	cash	cash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	meeting	meet	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	33	advcl	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
41	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	43	det	_	_
42	enterprise	enterprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	compound	_	_
43	worthy	worthy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	_
44	of	of	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
45	notice	notice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
47	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	49	nsubj	_	_
48	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	49	aux:pass	_	_
49	reduced	reduce	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
50	to	to	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
51	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	straits	strait	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | the Black Thief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is** | past | the Black Thief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | I |  | you |  |  | before *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  | at a certain time |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **run** | present | a certain time *not said here* |  |  | cash |  | fairly *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out cash=Trajectory |
| 6 | **meet** | gerund | a certain time *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with no enterprise worthy of notice | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with worthy=Co-Agent |
| 7 | **reduce** | past · passive |  | I |  |  |  | to great straits *goal* | vn limit-76 «NP V NP S\_ING»: subject=Patient to strait=Goal |

<!-- .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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