---
title: But the robbers knew all about it, and they told the youth that if h… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the robbers knew all about it, and they told the youth that if he could steal this as he had stolen the two others, he should be master of the whole troop. Who acts: robbers, man. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the robbers knew all about it, and they told the youth that if he could steal this as he had stolen the two others, he should be master of the whole troop.

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**Who acts:** robbers, man · **What happens:** know, tell, steal, be · **To what, where:** youth, this, two others, master · **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:pg540:9:71
# text = But the robbers knew all about it, and they told the youth that if he could steal this as he had stolen the two others, he should be master of the whole troop.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	robbers	robber	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	youth	youth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	obj	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	stolen	steal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	advcl	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	master	master	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	troop	troop	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the robbers |  |  |  |  | about sum; all *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about it=Stimulus |
| 2 | **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 |
| 3 | **steal** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | man | this |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location this=Theme |
| 4 | **steal** | past · perfect | man | the two others |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location other=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | should | man | master |  |  |  | of the whole troop | 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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