---
title: So they told the youth that if he could take this ox also without th… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So they told the youth that if he could take this ox also without the man knowing anything about it, and without doing him any hurt, he should then be on an equality with them. Who acts: robbers, man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So they told the youth that if he could take this ox also without the man knowing anything about it, and without doing him any hurt, he should then be on an equality with them.

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**Who acts:** robbers, man · **What happens:** tell, take, know, do, be · **To what, where:** youth, ox, anything, man, equality · **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 (robbers, man), 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:pg540:9:51
# text = So they told the youth that if he could take this ox also without the man knowing anything about it, and without doing him any hurt, he should then be on an equality with them.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	also	also	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	without	without	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
17	knowing	know	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	acl	_	_
18	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	about	about	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
24	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
27	hurt	hurt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
31	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	35	advmod	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
33	on	on	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	equality	equality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
36	with	with	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | robbers *= robber* | the youth |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent youth=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **take** *not said to happen* | could | man | this ox |  |  |  | without the man | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Theme |
| 3 | **know** | gerund | the man *not said here* | anything |  |  |  | about shoe | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 4 | **do** | gerund | robbers *= robber* *not said here* | man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | should | man |  |  | a equality | then | with robbers *= robber* | 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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