---
title: But if you do, tell me, I pray, if I alone am a captive, for hithert… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But if you do, tell me, I pray, if I alone am a captive, for hitherto I have beheld no one but the monsters of the lake.' Who acts: you, I. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 27, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 27, sentence 71

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But if you do, tell me, I pray, if I alone am a captive, for hitherto I have beheld no one but the monsters of the lake.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** do, tell, pray, be, behold · **To what, where:** me, captive, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 27. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I), 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:pg3027:27:71
# text = But if you do, tell me, I pray, if I alone am a captive, for hitherto I have beheld no one but the monsters of the lake.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	pray	pray	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	captive	captive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	hitherto	hitherto	ADV	RB	_	23	obl	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	beheld	behold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	monsters	monster	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **pray** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 4 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I | a captive |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **behold** | present · perfect | I | no one but the monsters of the lake |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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