---
title: If you fail to keep your word I will change you into a lizard for ev… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If you fail to keep your word I will change you into a lizard for ever.' Who acts: you, I, your. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 33, sentence 72

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If you fail to keep your word I will change you into a lizard for ever.'

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**Who acts:** you, I, your · **What happens:** fail, not keep, change, word · **To what, where:** word, you, lizard

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 33. 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, 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:pg3027:33:72
# text = If you fail to keep your word I will change you into a lizard for ever.'
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	fail	fail	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lizard	lizard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **keep** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | your word |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme |
| 3 | **change** | future | I | you |  | a lizard |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent you=Theme for ever=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **word** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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