---
title: “You're a likely lad,” said the joiner; “serve me for a twelvemonths… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “You're a likely lad,” said the joiner; “serve me for a twelvemonths and a day and I will pay you well.'” Who acts: You, joiner. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Ass, the Table, and the Stick, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Ass, the Table, and the Stick, sentence 18

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“You're a likely lad,” said the joiner; “serve me for a twelvemonths and a day and I will pay you well.'”

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**Who acts:** You, joiner · **What happens:** be, say, serve, pay · **To what, where:** likely lad, joiner, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Ass, the Table, and the Stick. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, joiner), 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:pg7439:45:18
# text = “You're a likely lad,” said the joiner; “serve me for a twelvemonths and a day and I will pay you well.'”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	're	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	joiner	joiner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	twelvemonths	twelvemonth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obl	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
26	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	25	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | You | a likely lad |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the joiner |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **serve** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the joiner *= joiner* |  |  |  | for a twelvemonths and a day | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Theme for twelvemonth=Recipient |
| 4 | **pay** *in a quote* | future | the joiner *= joiner* | you |  |  |  | well *property* | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Asset |

<!-- .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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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