---
title: ‘If you choose to buy him,’ answered the butchers derisively; ‘but f… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If you choose to buy him,’ answered the butchers derisively; ‘but for such a treasure we won’t take a penny less than a hundred florins.’ Who acts: you, we. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Ring, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Magic Ring, sentence 13

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‘If you choose to buy him,’ answered the butchers derisively; ‘but for such a treasure we won’t take a penny less than a hundred florins.’

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**Who acts:** you, we · **What happens:** choose, buy, answer, not take · **To what, where:** Martin, butchers, penny

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Magic Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, we), 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:pg640:33:13
# text = ‘If you choose to buy him,’ answered the butchers derisively; ‘but for such a treasure we won’t take a penny less than a hundred florins.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	buy	buy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	butchers	butcher	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	derisively	derisively	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
15	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	20	det:predet	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	treasure	treasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
21	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	wo	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	parataxis	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	penny	penny	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	30	advmod	_	_
28	than	than	ADP	IN	_	27	fixed	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	nummod	_	_
31	florins	florin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **buy** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | Martin |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  | the butchers |  |  |  | derisively *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent butcher=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **take** | future | we | a penny |  |  |  | for such treasure | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument penny=Theme florin=Destination |

<!-- .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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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