---
title: ‘I’d like to wring their necks,’ said the magician, and made all has… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I’d like to wring their necks,’ said the magician, and made all haste home, where he had every one of his servants beaten to within an inch of their lives. Who acts: I, magician. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 3, sentence 59

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‘I’d like to wring their necks,’ said the magician, and made all haste home, where he had every one of his servants beaten to within an inch of their lives.

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**Who acts:** I, magician · **What happens:** have, like, wring, say, make, beat · **To what, where:** necks, haste, one, servants · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, magician), 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:pg7277:28:59
# text = ‘I’d like to wring their necks,’ said the magician, and made all haste home, where he had every one of his servants beaten to within an inch of their lives.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’d	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
4	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	wring	wring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	necks	neck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	magician	magician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	parataxis	_	_
17	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	18	det	_	_
18	haste	haste	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	home	home	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
24	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	_
29	beaten	beat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	obl	_	_
31	within	within	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	inch	inch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **like** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **wring** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | pass's necks |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=Patient |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the magician |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **make** | past |  | all haste |  |  |  | home *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset haste=Product |
| 6 | **have** | past | Magician | every one of Magician's servants |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient |
| 7 | **beat** | participle |  | Magician's servants *not said here* |  |  |  | within a inch of pass's lives | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=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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