---
title: 'I will bring it back if you tell me what to do!' cried the little f… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'I will bring it back if you tell me what to do!' cried the little fish, who would have promised anything that was likely to carry her up to earth again. Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 25, sentence 51

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'I will bring it back if you tell me what to do!' cried the little fish, who would have promised anything that was likely to carry her up to earth again.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** bring back, tell, do, cry, promise, be · **To what, where:** face, me, little fish, notion, earth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 25. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg3027:25:51
# text = 'I will bring it back if you tell me what to do!' cried the little fish, who would have promised anything that was likely to carry her up to earth again.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	back	back	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
16	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	aux	_	_
24	promised	promise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	acl:relcl	_	_
25	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	24	obj	_	_
26	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
28	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	up	up	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	again	again	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring back** | future | I | face |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | past |  | the little fish |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Topic |
| 5 | **promise** *speech: promise* | would · perfect · passive |  | the little fish |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: subject=Goal anything=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | likely *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **carry up** | to-infinitive |  | notion |  | earth | again |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme to earth=Destination |

<!-- .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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