---
title: 'If you take my advice,' answered the old man, 'you will kill a cow,… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'If you take my advice,' answered the old man, 'you will kill a cow, and invite all the jackals in the forest to the feast. Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 17, sentence 135

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'If you take my advice,' answered the old man, 'you will kill a cow, and invite all the jackals in the forest to the feast.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** take, answer, kill, invite · **To what, where:** advice, old man, cow, jackals, forest

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg3027:17:135
# text = 'If you take my advice,' answered the old man, 'you will kill a cow, and invite all the jackals in the forest to the feast.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	csubj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	invite	invite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
23	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	25	det:predet	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	jackals	jackal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	feast	feast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | my advice |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advice=Theme |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the old man |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 3 | **kill** | future | you | a cow |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 4 | **invite** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  | all jackals | the forest to the feast |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jackal=Recipient |

<!-- .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 Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (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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