---
title: 'But if you are a fairy, how was it that you were so nearly slain by… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'But if you are a fairy, how was it that you were so nearly slain by the crow?' said the queen, wrinkling her forehead. Who acts: you, fairy. 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 77

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
'But if you are a fairy, how was it that you were so nearly slain by the crow?' said the queen, wrinkling her forehead.

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**Who acts:** you, fairy · **What happens:** be, slay, say, wrinkle · **To what, where:** fairy, kingdom, queen, forehead · **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, fairy), 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:pg3027:27:77
# text = 'But if you are a fairy, how was it that you were so nearly slain by the crow?' said the queen, wrinkling her forehead.
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	fairy	fairy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nmod	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	crow	crow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
23	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	wrinkling	wrinkle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
28	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	forehead	forehead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | a fairy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | kingdom |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **slay** | past · passive | you |  |  |  |  | by the crow; nearly *property* | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a fairy | the queen |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent queen=Topic |
| 5 | **wrinkle** | gerund | a fairy *not said here* | Fairy's forehead |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent forehead=Patient |

<!-- .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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