---
title: But he answered: ‘Only on condition that you promise faithfully that… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But he answered: ‘Only on condition that you promise faithfully that the first girl we meet shall not be killed.’ Who acts: wood, you, we. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 58

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But he answered: ‘Only on condition that you promise faithfully that the first girl we meet shall not be killed.’

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**Who acts:** wood, you, we · **What happens:** answer, promise, meet, not kill · **To what, where:** condition, first girl

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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 (wood, you, we), 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:pg540:41:58
# text = But he answered: ‘Only on condition that you promise faithfully that the first girl we meet shall not be killed.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Only	only	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	condition	condition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	obj	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	promise	promise	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	faithfully	faithfully	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	16	amod	_	_
16	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	meet	meet	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	acl:relcl	_	_
19	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | wood |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present | you | condition |  |  |  | faithfully *property* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 3 | **meet** | present | we | the first girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **not** **kill** | shall · passive |  | the first girl |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

<!-- .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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