---
title: ‘But,’ said Jack, ‘I could not kill anyone unless I were fighting wi… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘But,’ said Jack, ‘I could not kill anyone unless I were fighting with him; and I could not draw my sword upon a woman. Who acts: Jack, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Giant Breaks His Neck., sentence 6

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‘But,’ said Jack, ‘I could not kill anyone unless I were fighting with him; and I could not draw my sword upon a woman.

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**Who acts:** Jack, I · **What happens:** say, not kill, fight, not draw · **To what, where:** anyone, sword · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Giant Breaks His Neck.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Jack, 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:pg540:21:6
# text = ‘But,’ said Jack, ‘I could not kill anyone unless I were fighting with him; and I could not draw my sword upon a woman.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Jack	Jack	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
13	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obj	_	_
14	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	fighting	fight	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	draw	draw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	sword	sword	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jack |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **kill** | could | I | anyone |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anyone=Theme |
| 3 | **fight** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | with Jack | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with he=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **not** **draw** | could | I | my sword |  |  |  | upon a woman | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sword=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 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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