---
title: When he hears that I am dead, he is sure to try and get hold of you,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: When he hears that I am dead, he is sure to try and get hold of you, to carry you off to his den. Who acts: fox, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Little Pigs, sentence 30

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When he hears that I am dead, he is sure to try and get hold of you, to carry you off to his den.

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**Who acts:** fox, I · **What happens:** hear, be, try, get, carry off, hold · **To what, where:** hold, you, den · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Little Pigs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fox, I), 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:pg7277:13:30
# text = When he hears that I am dead, he is sure to try and get hold of you, to carry you off to his den.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hears	hear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
16	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	off	off	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	den	den	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | present | fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | fox |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **try** | to-infinitive | fox *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **get** | infinitive | fox *not said here* | hold of you |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hold=Stimulus |
| 6 | **carry off** | to-infinitive | fox *not said here* | you |  | fox's den |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent you=Theme to den=Destination |
| 7 | **hold** |  |  | you |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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