---
title: ‘Why,’ said his wife, ‘you caught him, and then let him go again, so… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why,’ said his wife, ‘you caught him, and then let him go again, so he is sure to give you what you ask. Who acts: you, man. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/54/19/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Green Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/) / [The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/54/) / 19

# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Why,’ said his wife, ‘you caught him, and then let him go again, so he is sure to give you what you ask.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, man · **What happens:** say, catch, let, go, be, give · **To what, where:** wife, man, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, man), 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:pg7277:54:19
# text = ‘Why,’ said his wife, ‘you caught him, and then let him go again, so he is sure to give you what you ask.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
16	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	again	again	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	obj	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  | man's wife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **catch** | past | you | man |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive |  | man |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go** | infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  | again |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | present | man |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **give** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 7 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/54/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/54/20/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of the Fisherman and His Wife](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/54/)