---
title: To be sure the wolves of the forest will devour us to-night if you r… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: To be sure the wolves of the forest will devour us to-night if you refuse us to lie here; and so we would rather the gentleman should eat us; and perhaps he may take pity upon us, especially if you please to beg it of him.” Who acts: wolves, you, we, gentleman. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Little Thumb, sentence 66

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To be sure the wolves of the forest will devour us to-night if you refuse us to lie here; and so we would rather the gentleman should eat us; and perhaps he may take pity upon us, especially if you please to beg it of him.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** wolves, you, we, gentleman · **What happens:** be, devour, refuse, not lie, gentleman, eat · **To what, where:** us, pity

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Little Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wolves, you, we, gentleman), 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:pg503:33:66
# text = To be sure the wolves of the forest will devour us to-night if you refuse us to lie here; and so we would rather the gentleman should eat us; and perhaps he may take pity upon us, especially if you please to beg it of him.”
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	3	mark	_	_
2	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	cop	_	_
3	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wolves	wolf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	devour	devour	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
18	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
21	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
25	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
30	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
32	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
35	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
37	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
39	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	_
40	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
43	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	46	advmod	_	_
44	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	46	mark	_	_
45	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
46	please	please	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
47	to	to	PART	TO	_	48	mark	_	_
48	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	xcomp	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	of	of	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
51	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **devour** | future | the wolves of the forest | us |  |  | night |  | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 3 | **refuse** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **lie** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | here |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **gentleman** | would | we |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **eat** | should | the gentleman | us |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 7 | **take** | may | gentleman | pity |  |  |  | upon us; perhaps *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Theme |
| 8 | **please** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  | especially *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **beg** *speech: request* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* |  | pity |  |  | of gentleman | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent it=Recipient |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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