---
title: But let me repeat; had it not been for you I could not have escaped… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But let me repeat; had it not been for you I could not have escaped death, and if I can do anything to help you, or soften your hard fate, you have only to tell me.' Who acts: you, me, I, your. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 27, with its dependency tree and the p
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 27, sentence 80

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But let me repeat; had it not been for you I could not have escaped death, and if I can do anything to help you, or soften your hard fate, you have only to tell me.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, me, I, your · **What happens:** let, repeat, have, not be, not escape, do · **To what, where:** me, cap, death, anything, you, hard fate · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, me, I, your), 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:pg3027:27:80
# text = But let me repeat; had it not been for you I could not have escaped death, and if I can do anything to help you, or soften your hard fate, you have only to tell me.'
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	repeat	repeat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	ccomp	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
9	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	cop	_	_
10	for	for	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
13	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
15	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux	_	_
16	escaped	escape	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	parataxis	_	_
17	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
24	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	23	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
27	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	soften	soften	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
32	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	fate	fate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	parataxis	_	_
37	only	only	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	xcomp	_	_
40	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	39	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **repeat** | infinitive | me *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **have** | past | me *not said here* | cap |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **not** **is** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | for you | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **escape** | could · perfect | I | death |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme death=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I | anything |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 7 | **help** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | you |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=Beneficiary |
| 8 | **soften** | infinitive | you *not said here* | your hard fate |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent fate=Patient |
| 9 | **have** | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 11 | **fate** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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