---
title: ‘If he asks what trade I follow, you may say that I am a Master Thie… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If he asks what trade I follow, you may say that I am a Master Thief,’ said he. Who acts: father, I, you. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Master Thief, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Master Thief, sentence 96

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‘If he asks what trade I follow, you may say that I am a Master Thief,’ said he.

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**Who acts:** father, I, you · **What happens:** ask, follow, say, be · **To what, where:** trade, Master Thief · **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 (father, I, you), 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:pg540:9:96
# text = ‘If he asks what trade I follow, you may say that I am a Master Thief,’ said he.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	asks	ask	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
6	trade	trade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	follow	follow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	ccomp	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	Master	Master	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	21	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Recipient |
| 2 | **follow** | present | I | trade *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trade=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | may | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** | present | I | a Master Thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | father |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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