---
title: If we return without the steed we will lose our heads, so I see we a… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If we return without the steed we will lose our heads, so I see we are ill fixed on both sides.’ Who acts: we, I. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen., sentence 52

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If we return without the steed we will lose our heads, so I see we are ill fixed on both sides.’

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**Who acts:** we, I · **What happens:** return, lose, see, be, fix · **To what, where:** heads, sides

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, 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:pg540:8:52
# text = If we return without the steed we will lose our heads, so I see we are ill fixed on both sides.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	return	return	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	without	without	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	steed	steed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
19	fixed	fix	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	sides	side	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | we |  |  |  |  | without the steed | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **lose** | future | we | our heads |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Eventuality |
| 3 | **see** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | present | we |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **fix** | participle |  |  |  | both sides |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |

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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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