---
title: ‘He must have been a most daring thief,’ said the King, ‘to try and… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘He must have been a most daring thief,’ said the King, ‘to try and steal the magic bird, for depend upon it the creature must have been well guarded. Who acts: emperor, King. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ever
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 26

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘He must have been a most daring thief,’ said the King, ‘to try and steal the magic bird, for depend upon it the creature must have been well guarded.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** emperor, King · **What happens:** dare, be, say, try, steal, depend · **To what, where:** daring thief, magic bird, creature · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor, King), 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:pg7277:52:26
# text = ‘He must have been a most daring thief,’ said the King, ‘to try and steal the magic bird, for depend upon it the creature must have been well guarded.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
3	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
7	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	8	advmod	_	_
8	daring	dare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	steal	steal	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	magic	magic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	depend	depend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	conj	_	_
27	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	aux	_	_
33	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	35	aux:pass	_	_
34	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	35	advmod	_	_
35	guarded	guard	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dare** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | must · perfect | emperor | a daring thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the King |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **try** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **steal** | infinitive |  | the magic bird |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bird=Theme |
| 6 | **depend** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | upon bird | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **guard** | must · perfect · passive |  | the creature |  |  |  | well *property* | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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