---
title: So the Governor said that he would do his very best, and the Master… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So the Governor said that he would do his very best, and the Master Thief got on the Governor’s horse. Who acts: Governor, 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/218/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Red Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/) / [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/) / 218

# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 218

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the Governor said that he would do his very best, and the Master Thief got on the Governor’s horse.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Governor, Master Thief · **What happens:** say, do, get · **To what, where:** best · **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 (Governor, Master Thief), 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:pg540:9:218
# text = So the Governor said that he would do his very best, and the Master Thief got on the Governor’s horse.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Governor	Governor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	very	very	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
11	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Governor	Governor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Governor |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** | would | Governor | Governor's best |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Eventuality |
| 3 | **get** | past | the Master Thief |  |  |  |  | on the Governor's horse | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent on horse=Source |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 217](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/217/)
- next →: [sentence 219](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/219/)
- ↑ back to [The Master Thief](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg540/9/)