---
title: 'Well, I must try,' replied the man, 'or I shall be hanged on a tree… — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Well, I must try,' replied the man, 'or I shall be hanged on a tree; so it were a good deed to help me.' Who acts: I, tree. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 6, sentence 20

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'Well, I must try,' replied the man, 'or I shall be hanged on a tree; so it were a good deed to help me.'

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**Who acts:** I, tree · **What happens:** try, reply, hange, be, help · **To what, where:** man, I, tree, good deed, me

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, tree), 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:pg3027:6:20
# text = 'Well, I must try,' replied the man, 'or I shall be hanged on a tree; so it were a good deed to help me.'
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
9	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	hanged	hange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	conj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	deed	deed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
29	to	to	PART	TO	_	30	mark	_	_
30	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	_
31	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | must | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 3 | **hange** | shall · passive |  | I |  | a tree |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | past | tree | a good deed |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **help** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  | me |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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