---
title: ‘Woe betide me,’ he cried, ‘if I would not hang them all if I could… — The Lilac Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Woe betide me,’ he cried, ‘if I would not hang them all if I could catch them, and such as I have I will hang.’ Who acts: Woe, I. A sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Lilac Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Woe betide me,’ he cried, ‘if I would not hang them all if I could catch them, and such as I have I will hang.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Woe, I · **What happens:** betide, cry, not hang, catch, have, hang · **To what, where:** me, clasps

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This is a sentence of «The Lilac Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book, part 35. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Woe, 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:pg3454:35:81
# text = ‘Woe betide me,’ he cried, ‘if I would not hang them all if I could catch them, and such as I have I will hang.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Woe	woe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	betide	betide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	all	all	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
25	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|ExtPos=ADP	28	case	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	fixed	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
30	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	hang	hang	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **betide** | infinitive | Woe | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Woe |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **hang** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | I | clasps *= clasp* |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 4 | **catch** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | I | clasps *= clasp* |  |  |  | all *property* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **have** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **hang** | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 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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