---
title: Or if I could only tell him all that has happened since we parted. — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Or if I could only tell him all that has happened since we parted. Who acts: I, that, we. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/36/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Orange Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/) / [Opening, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/) / 36

# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 28, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Or if I could only tell him all that has happened since we parted.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, that, we · **What happens:** tell, happen, part · **To what, where:** father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, that, we), 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:pg3027:28:36
# text = Or if I could only tell him all that has happened since we parted.
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	ccomp	_	_
12	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	parted	part	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | I |  | father |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** | present · perfect | that |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **part** | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/35/)
- next →: [sentence 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/37/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3027/28/)

