---
title: ‘If you will serve me for seven years,’ said the dragon, I will lead… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If you will serve me for seven years,’ said the dragon, I will lead you through the midst of the army so that no one shall catch you.’ Who acts: you, I, one. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Dragon and His Grandmother, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘If you will serve me for seven years,’ said the dragon, I will lead you through the midst of the army so that no one shall catch you.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, I, one · **What happens:** serve, say, lead, catch · **To what, where:** me, dragon, you, midst · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Dragon and His Grandmother. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, one), 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:pg640:9:15
# text = ‘If you will serve me for seven years,’ said the dragon, I will lead you through the midst of the army so that no one shall catch you.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	lead	lead	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	through	through	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	army	army	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	31	mark	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	fixed	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **serve** | future | you | me |  |  | year |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Attribute |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | you *not said here* | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent dragon=Topic |
| 3 | **lead** | future | I | you |  | the midst of the army |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent you=Theme through midst=Destination |
| 4 | **catch** | shall | no one | you |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |

<!-- .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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