---
title: If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday, whe… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday, when every one of us is watching it, he shall have my daughter. Who acts: man, one. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 109

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If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday, when every one of us is watching it, he shall have my daughter.

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**Who acts:** man, one · **What happens:** steal, watch, have · **To what, where:** joint, spit, daughter

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, one), 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:pg540:9:109
# text = If he can steal the joint off the spit in the kitchen on Sunday, when every one of us is watching it, he shall have my daughter.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	joint	joint	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	off	off	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	spit	spit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Sunday	Sunday	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
17	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
23	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
28	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | man | the joint |  | the spit in the kitchen on Sunday |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent joint=Theme off spit=Source |
| 2 | **watch** | present · progressive | every one of us | joint |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | shall | man | my daughter |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |

<!-- .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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