---
title: It was as much as to say, "We are not afraid of you so long as the l… — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · tree and pragmatics
description: It was as much as to say, "We are not afraid of you so long as the little word 'if' stands in your way." Who acts: IF, We, little word. A sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Fifty Famous Stories Retold, A Laconic Answer., sentence 14

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It was as much as to say, "We are not afraid of you so long as the little word 'if' stands in your way."

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**Who acts:** IF, We, little word · **What happens:** be, say, not be, stand · **To what, where:** way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, A Laconic Answer.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (IF, We, little word), 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:pg18442:35:14
# text = It was as much as to say, "We are not afraid of you so long as the little word 'if' stands in your way."
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	conj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
25	stands	stand	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | IF |  |  |  |  | much *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | present | We |  |  |  |  | of you; as the little word; afraid, long *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **stand** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the little word *not said here* |  |  | your way |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in way=Location |

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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:** «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 18442 (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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