---
title: If this is your only wish, so be it; I will tell you. — The Brown Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If this is your only wish, so be it; I will tell you. Who acts: this, I. A sentence of «The Brown Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Brown Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book, part 5, sentence 20

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If this is your only wish, so be it; I will tell you.

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**Who acts:** this, I · **What happens:** be, tell · **To what, where:** only wish, wish, you · **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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, I), 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:pg3282:5:20
# text = If this is your only wish, so be it; I will tell you.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	wish	wish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | this | your only wish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | infinitive |  | wish |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | future | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |

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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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