---
title: But the cunning flute-player replied: ‘I will give you back your bea… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But the cunning flute-player replied: ‘I will give you back your beard, but you must first help me as you have promised to do. Who acts: cunning flute player, I, you. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Musicians, sentence 42

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But the cunning flute-player replied: ‘I will give you back your beard, but you must first help me as you have promised to do.

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**Who acts:** cunning flute player, I, you · **What happens:** reply, give back, help, promise, do · **To what, where:** beard, you, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Musicians. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (cunning flute player, I, you), 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:pg7277:55:42
# text = But the cunning flute-player replied: ‘I will give you back your beard, but you must first help me as you have promised to do.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
3	cunning	cunning	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
4	flute	flute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	player	player	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	back	back	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
15	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	beard	beard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	advmod	_	_
22	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
23	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	advcl	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the cunning flute player |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give back** | future | I | your beard | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient beard=Theme |
| 3 | **help** | must | you |  | me |  |  | first *property* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present · perfect | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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