---
title: Let them bind me as fast as they will, I can always break loose, and… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Let them bind me as fast as they will, I can always break loose, and return to the forest and freedom.” Who acts: you, ropes, I. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, 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/pg3282/21/32/)

<!-- 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 Brown Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/) / [The Brown Fairy Book, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/21/) / 32

# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21, sentence 32

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Let them bind me as fast as they will, I can always break loose, and return to the forest and freedom.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, ropes, I · **What happens:** let, bind, break, return · **To what, where:** ropes, me

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 21. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, ropes, I), 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:pg3282:21:32
# text = Let them bind me as fast as they will, I can always break loose, and return to the forest and freedom.”
1	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	bind	bind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	xcomp	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	as	as	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
7	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	14	advmod	_	_
14	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
15	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	return	return	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	freedom	freedom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | imperative | you *not said here* | ropes *= rope* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **bind** | infinitive | ropes *= rope* *not said here* | me |  |  |  | fast *property* | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **break** | can | I |  |  |  |  | always, loose *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **return** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | to the forest and freedom *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to forest=Result |

<!-- .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 Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3282 (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 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/21/31/)
- next →: [sentence 33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/21/33/)
- ↑ back to [The Brown Fairy Book, part 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/21/)