---
title: “If wild animals were to come and tear me to pieces,” he said to him… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “If wild animals were to come and tear me to pieces,” he said to himself bitterly, “it would be only what I deserve! Who acts: wild animals, mind, money. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12, sentence 5

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“If wild animals were to come and tear me to pieces,” he said to himself bitterly, “it would be only what I deserve!

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**Who acts:** wild animals, mind, money · **What happens:** come, tear, say, be, deserve · **To what, where:** mind · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wild animals, mind, money), 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:pg2435:12:5
# text = “If wild animals were to come and tear me to pieces,” he said to himself bitterly, “it would be only what I deserve!
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	ccomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	tear	tear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obl	_	_
19	bitterly	bitterly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
25	only	only	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	parataxis	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	deserve	deserve	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | wild animals |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tear** *in a quote* | infinitive | wild animals *not said here* | mind |  |  |  | to pieces *result* | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent i=Patient to piece=Result |
| 3 | **say** *speech: express* | past | mind |  | mind |  |  | bitterly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to himself=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | money |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **deserve** *in a quote* | present | mind |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (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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