---
title: You must argue with me, and decline to obey me, and then I shall plu… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: You must argue with me, and decline to obey me, and then I shall plunge my knife into the bladder, and you must fall to the ground as if you were dead. Who acts: You, I. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
You must argue with me, and decline to obey me, and then I shall plunge my knife into the bladder, and you must fall to the ground as if you were dead.

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**Who acts:** You, I · **What happens:** argue, decline, not obey, plunge, fall, be · **To what, where:** me, knife, bladder

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 17. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, I), 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:pg5615:17:61
# text = You must argue with me, and decline to obey me, and then I shall plunge my knife into the bladder, and you must fall to the ground as if you were dead.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	argue	argue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	with	with	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	decline	decline	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	obey	obey	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	plunge	plunge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	bladder	bladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	fall	fall	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
32	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
35	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **argue** *speech: disagree* | must | You |  |  |  |  | with me | vn chit\_chat-37.6-1 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with i=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **decline** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **obey** | to-infinitive |  | me |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 4 | **plunge** | shall | I | my knife |  | the bladder | then |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall** | must | you |  |  |  |  | to the ground | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to ground=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | past | you |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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