---
title: 'Perhaps I might come for a short time,' said the sheep, with a litt… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Perhaps I might come for a short time,' said the sheep, with a little hesitation; 'and if we do not get on, we can part company.' Who acts: I, we. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 19, sentence 29

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'Perhaps I might come for a short time,' said the sheep, with a little hesitation; 'and if we do not get on, we can part company.'

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**Who acts:** I, we · **What happens:** come, say, not get on, company · **To what, where:** sheep · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 19. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, we), 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:pg3027:19:29
# text = 'Perhaps I might come for a short time,' said the sheep, with a little hesitation; 'and if we do not get on, we can part company.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	hesitation	hesitation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
21	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
23	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
28	on	on	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
30	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
31	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | might | I |  |  |  | time | perhaps *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I *not said here* | the sheep |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sheep=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **get on** *a condition, not said to happen* | present · do-support | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **company** | can | we |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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