---
title: Put some poison, if you like, into the porridge, but at least let me… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Put some poison, if you like, into the porridge, but at least let me have a good meal before I die.' Who acts: you, me, I. 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 55

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Put some poison, if you like, into the porridge, but at least let me have a good meal before I die.'

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**Who acts:** you, me, I · **What happens:** put, like, let, have, die · **To what, where:** poison, porridge, me, least, good meal

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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, me, I), 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:pg3027:17:55
# text = Put some poison, if you like, into the porridge, but at least let me have a good meal before I die.'
1	Put	put	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	3	det	_	_
3	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	porridge	porridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	least	least	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	obl	_	_
16	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | imperative | you *not said here* | some poison |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent poison=Goal |
| 2 | **like** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | the porridge |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot porridge=Theme |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive | you *not said here* | me |  | least |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **have** | infinitive | me *not said here* | a good meal |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meal=Patient |
| 5 | **die** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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 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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