---
title: ‘I wish you would bind me to a tree,’ exclaimed the shepherd, ‘so th… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I wish you would bind me to a tree,’ exclaimed the shepherd, ‘so that my back would get straight.’ Who acts: I, you, back. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/1/75/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 75

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I wish you would bind me to a tree,’ exclaimed the shepherd, ‘so that my back would get straight.’

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**Who acts:** I, you, back · **What happens:** wish, bind, exclaim, get · **To what, where:** me, shepherd · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. 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, back), 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:pg5615:1:75
# text = ‘I wish you would bind me to a tree,’ exclaimed the shepherd, ‘so that my back would get straight.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wish	wish	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	bind	bind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	exclaimed	exclaim	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
24	straight	straight	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wish** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **bind** | would | you | me |  |  |  | to a tree | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent i=Patient to tree=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | past |  | the shepherd |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **get** | would | my back |  |  |  |  | straight *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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 Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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