---
title: Take it in your hand, but if they ask you who I am, say that you do… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Take it in your hand, but if they ask you who I am, say that you do not know.’ Who acts: you, sisters, I. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5), with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Golden Crab(5), sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Take it in your hand, but if they ask you who I am, say that you do not know.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, sisters, I · **What happens:** take, ask, be, say, not know · **To what, where:** apple, hand, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Crab(5). The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, sisters, I), 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:pg640:7:53
# text = Take it in your hand, but if they ask you who I am, say that you do not know.’
1	Take	take	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	ccomp	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
14	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
16	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | imperative | you *not said here* | apple |  | your hand |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Value in hand=Location |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | sisters *= sister* |  | you |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 3 | **is a** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **know** | present · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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