---
title: So late at night the Master Thief went and cut down a thief who was… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So late at night the Master Thief went and cut down a thief who was hanging on the gallows, laid him on his own shoulders, and took him away with him. Who acts: Master Thief, thief. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 228

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So late at night the Master Thief went and cut down a thief who was hanging on the gallows, laid him on his own shoulders, and took him away with him.

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**Who acts:** Master Thief, thief · **What happens:** go, cut down, hang, lay, take away · **To what, where:** thief, gallows, Governor, own shoulders

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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 (Master Thief, 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:pg540:9:228
# text = So late at night the Master Thief went and cut down a thief who was hanging on the gallows, laid him on his own shoulders, and took him away with him.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	late	late	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
3	at	at	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	gallows	gallows	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	laid	lay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	on	on	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obj	_	_
31	away	away	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the Master Thief |  |  |  |  | late *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cut down** | participle | the Master Thief *not said here* | a thief |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset thief=Product |
| 3 | **hang** | past · progressive | a thief |  |  | the gallows |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on gallows=Location |
| 4 | **lay** | past | the Master Thief *not said here* | Governor |  | Governor's own shoulders |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme on shoulder=Destination |
| 5 | **take away** | past | the Master Thief *not said here* | Governor |  |  |  | with Governor; away *property* | 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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