---
title: ‘If thou wilt do what I tell thee, thou shalt choose among us three,… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If thou wilt do what I tell thee, thou shalt choose among us three,’ said the Princess. Who acts: thou, I, Princess. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Three Princesses of Whiteland, sentence 18

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‘If thou wilt do what I tell thee, thou shalt choose among us three,’ said the Princess.

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**Who acts:** thou, I, Princess · **What happens:** do, tell, choose, say · **To what, where:** thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (thou, I, Princess), 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:pg540:26:18
# text = ‘If thou wilt do what I tell thee, thou shalt choose among us three,’ said the Princess.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	5	nsubj	_	_
4	wilt	will	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	obj	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
12	shalt	shall	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	among	among	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	15	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	Princess	Princess	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | I |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 3 | **choose** | shall | thou |  |  |  |  | among us | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Princess |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

<!-- .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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