---
title: The food may be bad, he will die of hunger; and, if he dies we die a… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The food may be bad, he will die of hunger; and, if he dies we die also.' Who acts: food, life, we. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 21, sentence 29

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The food may be bad, he will die of hunger; and, if he dies we die also.'

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**Who acts:** food, life, we · **What happens:** be, die

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (food, life, 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:pg3027:21:29
# text = The food may be bad, he will die of hunger; and, if he dies we die also.'
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
5	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	hunger	hunger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	dies	die	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	die	die	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
20	also	also	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | the food |  |  |  |  | bad *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **die** | future | life |  |  |  |  | of hunger | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V PP.cause»: agent=Patient of hunger=Causer |
| 3 | **die** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | life |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **die** | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | 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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