---
title: The Master Thief lived well and happily from that time forth, and wh… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Master Thief lived well and happily from that time forth, and whether he ever stole any more or not I cannot tell you, but if he did it was but for pastime. Who acts: Master Thief, Governor, I, money. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree a
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 253

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Master Thief lived well and happily from that time forth, and whether he ever stole any more or not I cannot tell you, but if he did it was but for pastime.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Master Thief, Governor, I, money · **What happens:** live, steal, not tell, do, be · **To what, where:** you · **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 (Master Thief, Governor, I, money), 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:pg540:9:253
# text = The Master Thief lived well and happily from that time forth, and whether he ever stole any more or not I cannot tell you, but if he did it was but for pastime.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Thief	Thief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	5	conj	_	_
8	from	from	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	det	_	_
10	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
18	any	any	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	17	advmod	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
29	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
34	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	pastime	pastime	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past | the Master Thief |  |  |  | time | well *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **steal** | past | Governor |  |  |  | ever |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | can | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Governor |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | past | money |  |  |  |  | for pastime | tree rules |

<!-- .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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