---
title: ‘If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black sheep.’ Who acts: you, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Wonderful Birch, sentence 4

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‘If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black sheep.’

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**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** spit, run, change · **To what, where:** you, sheath, legs

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Wonderful Birch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, 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:pg540:14:4
# text = ‘If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black sheep.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spit	spit	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
7	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	creature	creature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	spit	spit	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
13	into	into	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sheath	sheath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
21	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	run	run	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
24	between	between	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	legs	leg	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
28	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	obj	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
34	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spit** | present | you | you |  |  |  | miserable creature *obl:unmarked* | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent you=Theme |
| 2 | **spit** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  | the sheath of my knife |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **run** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  | my legs |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between leg=Trajectory |
| 4 | **change** | shall | I | you |  |  |  | into a black sheep *result* | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent you=Patient into sheep=Result |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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