---
title: Couldn’t you play off a really good trick on the Priest? for he is s… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Couldn’t you play off a really good trick on the Priest? for he is sitting inside there and calling me a fool for having let myself be taken in by such a fellow as you.’ Who acts: you, Governor, fellow. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Couldn’t you play off a really good trick on the Priest? for he is sitting inside there and calling me a fool for having let myself be taken in by such a fellow as you.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Governor, fellow · **What happens:** not play off, sit, call, have, let, take in · **To what, where:** good trick, Priest, me, myself · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (you, Governor, fellow), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg540:9:131
# text = Couldn’t you play off a really good trick on the Priest? for he is sitting inside there and calling me a fool for having let myself be taken in by such a fellow as you.’
1	Could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	really	really	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	trick	trick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Priest	Priest	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
18	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	calling	call	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	conj	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
25	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
27	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	30	cc	_	_
28	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	27	obj	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	aux:pass	_	_
30	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	conj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
32	by	by	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	35	det:predet	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	fellow	fellow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	as	as	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **play off** | could | you | a good trick |  | the Priest |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trick=Theme |
| 2 | **sit** | present · progressive | Governor |  |  | there |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **call** | gerund | Governor *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme fool=Result |
| 4 | **have** | gerund | Governor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive |  | myself |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent myself=Theme |
| 6 | **take in** | infinitive · passive | such fellow as you |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=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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