---
title: ‘“If I did not fear to distress thee too much, I would show thee wha… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘“If I did not fear to distress thee too much, I would show thee what thou seekest.” Who acts: man, thou. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30, sentence 20

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‘“If I did not fear to distress thee too much, I would show thee what thou seekest.”

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**Who acts:** man, thou · **What happens:** not fear, distress, show, seek · **To what, where:** thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 30. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, thou), 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:pg3454:30:20
# text = ‘“If I did not fear to distress thee too much, I would show thee what thou seekest.”
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	fear	fear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	distress	distress	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	9	obj	_	_
11	too	too	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	show	show	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
17	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	iobj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	obj	_	_
19	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nsubj	_	_
20	seekest	seek	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **fear** *in a quote* | past · do-support | this man *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **distress** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | this man *= man* *not said here* | thee |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus thou=Experiencer much=Result |
| 3 | **show** *in a quote* | would | this man *= man* |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **seek** *in a quote* | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |

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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 Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3454 (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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