---
title: “Very well,” answered the king; “but if you fail, you will pay for i… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “Very well,” answered the king; “but if you fail, you will pay for it with your head!” and signed that both should leave his presence. Who acts: king, you, both. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 13, sentence 20

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Very well,” answered the king; “but if you fail, you will pay for it with your head!” and signed that both should leave his presence.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, you, both · **What happens:** answer, fail, pay, sign, leave · **To what, where:** presence · **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 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (king, you, both), 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:pg2435:13:20
# text = “Very well,” answered the king; “but if you fail, you will pay for it with your head!” and signed that both should leave his presence.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	fail	fail	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	signed	sign	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
28	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
29	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	ccomp	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: express* | past | the king |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **pay** *in a quote* | future | you |  |  |  |  | for bread; with your head | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for it=Theme |
| 4 | **sign** | past | the king *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn instr\_communication-37.4.1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **leave** | should | both | king's presence |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent presence=Theme |

<!-- .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 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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