---
title: “If you meant to kill me,” retorted the prince, “you would still hav… — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: “If you meant to kill me,” retorted the prince, “you would still have first to tell me what I want to know.” Who acts: you, prince. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4, sentence 119

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“If you meant to kill me,” retorted the prince, “you would still have first to tell me what I want to know.”

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**Who acts:** you, prince · **What happens:** mean, kill, retort, have, tell, want · **To what, where:** prince · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, prince), 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:pg3282:4:119
# text = “If you meant to kill me,” retorted the prince, “you would still have first to tell me what I want to know.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	meant	mean	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	retorted	retort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	prince	prince	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	still	still	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
19	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
22	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	iobj	_	_
23	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	25	obj	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	ccomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **kill** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | the prince *= prince* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 3 | **retort** *speech: other* | past | the prince |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** *in a quote* | would | you |  |  |  | still | first *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | the prince *= prince* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 6 | **want** *in a quote* | present | the prince *= prince* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **know** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | the prince *= prince* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 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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