---
title: ‘It is because,’ he answered, ‘the castle people will not allow me t… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘It is because,’ he answered, ‘the castle people will not allow me to carry off the Golden Blackbird without giving them the Porcelain Maiden in exchange.’ Who acts: friend, castle people. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 46

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‘It is because,’ he answered, ‘the castle people will not allow me to carry off the Golden Blackbird without giving them the Porcelain Maiden in exchange.’

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**Who acts:** friend, castle people · **What happens:** be, not allow, carry off, give · **To what, where:** me, Golden Blackbird, Porcelain Maiden, exchange

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend, castle people), 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:pg7277:21:46
# text = ‘It is because,’ he answered, ‘the castle people will not allow me to carry off the Golden Blackbird without giving them the Porcelain Maiden in exchange.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	castle	castle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
14	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	iobj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	Golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	Blackbird	blackbird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	advcl	_	_
26	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	iobj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	Porcelain	Porcelain	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	Maiden	Maiden	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	iobj	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	exchange	exchange	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | friend |  |  |  |  | answer *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **allow** | future | the castle people |  | me |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer i=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **carry off** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the castle people *not said here* | the Golden Blackbird |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blackbird=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | gerund | the castle people *not said here* |  | the Porcelain Maiden | exchange |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient maiden=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 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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