---
title: The knaves, who thought they were doing a capital piece of business,… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The knaves, who thought they were doing a capital piece of business, paid down the fifty gold pieces at once, and left the house quite happily, leading the goat with them. Who acts: goats. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 68

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The knaves, who thought they were doing a capital piece of business, paid down the fifty gold pieces at once, and left the house quite happily, leading the goat with them.

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**Who acts:** goats · **What happens:** think, do, pay down, leave, lead · **To what, where:** knaves, capital piece, fifty gold pieces, house, goat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (goats), 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:pg7277:26:68
# text = The knaves, who thought they were doing a capital piece of business, paid down the fifty gold pieces at once, and left the house quite happily, leading the goat with them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	knaves	knave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	capital	capital	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	business	business	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	paid	pay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	parataxis	_	_
16	down	down	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	fifty	fifty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
19	gold	gold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
21	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	happily	happily	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
31	leading	lead	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	25	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
34	with	with	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  | the knaves |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **do** | past · progressive | goats *= goat* | a capital piece of business |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Eventuality |
| 3 | **pay down** | participle |  | the fifty gold pieces |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Asset |
| 4 | **leave** | past |  | the house |  |  |  | happily *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 5 | **lead** | gerund |  | the goat |  |  |  | with goats *= goat* | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goat=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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