---
title: So they took him to be christened, and the parson said: ‘You’ll neve… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: So they took him to be christened, and the parson said: ‘You’ll never be able to put that child in a decent bed on account of his prickles.’ Who acts: children, parson, You. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Jack My Hedgehog, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So they took him to be christened, and the parson said: ‘You’ll never be able to put that child in a decent bed on account of his prickles.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, parson, You · **What happens:** take, christen, say, not be, put, account · **To what, where:** farmer, child, decent bed, prickles · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children, parson, You), 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:pg7277:48:9
# text = So they took him to be christened, and the parson said: ‘You’ll never be able to put that child in a decent bed on account of his prickles.’
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	christened	christen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	parson	parson	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’ll	'll	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
19	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	ccomp	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	decent	decent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
28	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	prickles	prickle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | children *= child* |  | farmer |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument he=Destination |
| 2 | **christen** | to-infinitive · passive | children *= child* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP» |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the parson |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | You |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **put** | to-infinitive | You *not said here* | that child |  | a decent bed |  | on account of farmer's prickles | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme on account=Destination |
| 6 | **account** |  |  | farmer's prickles |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication 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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