---
title: If I give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then y… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If I give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then you may safely return; but if I give birth to a little daughter I will wave a red flag, which will warn you to fly away as quickly as you can, and may the kind Heaven have pity on you. Who acts: I, you, kind Heaven. A sentence of «Th
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If I give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then you may safely return; but if I give birth to a little daughter I will wave a red flag, which will warn you to fly away as quickly as you can, and may the kind Heaven have pity on you.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, you, kind Heaven · **What happens:** give, wave, return, warn, fly away, have · **To what, where:** birth, little son, white flag, little daughter, red flag, you

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you, kind Heaven), 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:pg540:41:14
# text = If I give birth to a little son I will wave a white flag, and then you may safely return; but if I give birth to a little daughter I will wave a red flag, which will warn you to fly away as quickly as you can, and may the kind Heaven have pity on you.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	wave	wave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	flag	flag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	21	advmod	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	safely	safely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
24	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
27	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	wave	wave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	red	red	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	flag	flag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
39	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	41	nsubj	_	_
40	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	41	aux	_	_
41	warn	warn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	conj	_	_
42	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	41	obj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
45	away	away	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	as	as	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
48	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
49	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	47	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	57	punct	_	_
52	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	57	cc	_	_
53	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	57	aux	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
55	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	56	amod	_	_
56	Heaven	Heaven	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
57	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
58	pity	pity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	_
59	on	on	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
60	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	57	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I | birth | a little son |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to son=Recipient |
| 2 | **wave** | future | I | a white flag |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flag=Patient |
| 3 | **return** | may | you |  |  |  | then | safely *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I | birth | a little daughter |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to daughter=Recipient |
| 5 | **wave** | future | I | a red flag |  |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flag=Patient |
| 6 | **warn** *speech: warn* | future |  |  | you |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S\_INF»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 7 | **fly away** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | away, quickly *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **have** | may | the kind Heaven | pity |  |  |  | on you | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pity=Patient |

<!-- .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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