---
title: ‘If that’s all,’ said the first tailor, ‘they are most likely black… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If that’s all,’ said the first tailor, ‘they are most likely black and white, like the kind of cloth we call pepper-and-salt.’ Who acts: tailors, we. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Clever Tailor, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of a Clever Tailor, sentence 11

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‘If that’s all,’ said the first tailor, ‘they are most likely black and white, like the kind of cloth we call pepper-and-salt.’

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**Who acts:** tailors, we · **What happens:** say, be, call · **To what, where:** first tailor, pepper · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Clever Tailor. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tailors, we), 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:pg7277:51:11
# text = ‘If that’s all,’ said the first tailor, ‘they are most likely black and white, like the kind of cloth we call pepper-and-salt.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	11	amod	_	_
11	tailor	tailor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	17	advmod	_	_
17	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	ccomp	_	_
18	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	like	like	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	kind	kind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	pepper	pepper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	33	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	31	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | the first tailor |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent tailor=Topic |
| 2 | **is** | present | tailors *= tailor* |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **call** | present | we | pepper and salt |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent pepper=Recipient |

<!-- .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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