---
title: However, it could do no harm, if he was to go a little way; he could… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: However, it could do no harm, if he was to go a little way; he could always manage to get back somehow. Who acts: tree, cat. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/29/21/)

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29, sentence 21

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However, it could do no harm, if he was to go a little way; he could always manage to get back somehow.

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**Who acts:** tree, cat · **What happens:** do, be, manage, get back · **To what, where:** harm

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 29. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tree, cat), 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:pg3282:29:21
# text = However, it could do no harm, if he was to go a little way; he could always manage to get back somehow.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	21	advmod	_	_
21	manage	manage	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	somehow	somehow	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | could | tree | no harm |  |  |  | however *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | cat |  |  |  |  | a little way *obl:unmarked*; go *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **manage** | could | cat |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn succeed-74-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **get back** | to-infinitive | cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  | somehow *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

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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 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.

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