---
title: The way to heaven is not an easy one,’ said the Master Thief, and dr… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The way to heaven is not an easy one,’ said the Master Thief, and dragged him along till he all but killed him. Who acts: way, Master Thief. 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 145

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The way to heaven is not an easy one,’ said the Master Thief, and dragged him along till he all but killed him.

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**Who acts:** way, Master Thief · **What happens:** not be, say, drag, kill · **To what, where:** easy one, Priest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (way, Master Thief), 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:pg540:9:145
# text = The way to heaven is not an easy one,’ said the Master Thief, and dragged him along till he all but killed him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
7	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	dragged	drag	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	along	along	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	till	till	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	obl	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
26	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | the way to heaven | a easy one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Master Thief |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **drag** | past | the Master Thief *not said here* | Priest |  |  | till all | along *property* | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | past | the Master Thief *not said here* | Priest |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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