---
title: ‘I must have threescore cattle killed,’ said she, ‘and cut up into q… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I must have threescore cattle killed,’ said she, ‘and cut up into quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one of them into my mouth.’ Who acts: I, threescore cattle, noise, Irishman. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains, with its dependency
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Blue Mountains, sentence 140

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I must have threescore cattle killed,’ said she, ‘and cut up into quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one of them into my mouth.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, threescore cattle, noise, Irishman · **What happens:** have, kill, say, cut up, look, throw · **To what, where:** threescore cattle, time, shoulder, one, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Blue Mountains. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, threescore cattle, noise, Irishman), 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:pg640:45:140
# text = ‘I must have threescore cattle killed,’ said she, ‘and cut up into quarters, and every time I look over my shoulder he must throw one of them into my mouth.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
5	threescore	threescore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
13	‘	‘	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	parataxis	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	quarters	quarter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	look	look	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	shoulder	shoulder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	parataxis	_	_
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	30	obj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	_
34	into	into	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | must | I | threescore cattle |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | participle | threescore cattle *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | noise |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **cut up** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | into quarters | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent into quarter=Patient |
| 5 | **look** | present | I | every time *not said here* |  | my shoulder |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme time=Attribute |
| 6 | **throw** | must | Irishman | one of quarters |  |  | time | into my mouth *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer one=Theme into mouth=Result |

<!-- .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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