---
title: Ask him, instead, for the ring which he wears on his little finger,… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Ask him, instead, for the ring which he wears on his little finger, for in that ring lies a magic power; you have only to throw it from one hand to the other, and at once twelve young men will appear, who will do your bidding, no matter how difficult, in a single night.’ Who acts: you, ring, twelve 
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Magic Ring, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ask him, instead, for the ring which he wears on his little finger, for in that ring lies a magic power; you have only to throw it from one hand to the other, and at once twelve young men will appear, who will do your bidding, no matter how difficult, in a single night.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, ring, twelve young men, your · **What happens:** ask, wear, lie, have, throw, appear · **To what, where:** Kingdom, little finger, magic power, power, one hand, bidding

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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, ring, twelve young men, your), 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:pg640:33:57
# text = Ask him, instead, for the ring which he wears on his little finger, for in that ring lies a magic power; you have only to throw it from one hand to the other, and at once twelve young men will appear, who will do your bidding, no matter how difficult, in a single night.’
1	Ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	instead	instead	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	wears	wear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	finger	finger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	ring	ring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
21	lies	lie	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	magic	magic	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	from	from	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nummod	_	_
34	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
39	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	46	obl	_	_
42	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	nummod	_	_
43	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	amod	_	_
44	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
45	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
46	appear	appear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	50	nsubj	_	_
49	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	conj	_	_
51	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	bidding	bidding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
54	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	55	det	_	_
55	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	appos	_	_
56	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	57	advmod	_	_
57	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	62	punct	_	_
59	in	in	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
60	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	62	det	_	_
61	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	62	amod	_	_
62	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
64	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | Kingdom |  |  | for the ring; instead *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **wear** | present | the ring |  |  | Kingdom's little finger |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **lie** | present | the ring *not said here* | a magic power |  |  |  | for that ring | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location power=Theme |
| 4 | **have** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **throw** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | power |  | one hand |  | to the other | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme from hand=Initial\_Location to other=Destination |
| 6 | **appear** | future | twelve young men |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Location |
| 7 | **do** | future |  | your bidding |  |  | night |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bidding=Eventuality |
| 8 | **bid** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom bidding «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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