---
title: ‘If I could have let you go, and kept your eleven brothers at home,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘If I could have let you go, and kept your eleven brothers at home, it would have been better for me in my old age.’ Who acts: I, home. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28, sentence 13

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‘If I could have let you go, and kept your eleven brothers at home, it would have been better for me in my old age.’

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**Who acts:** I, home · **What happens:** let, go, keep, be · **To what, where:** I, eleven brothers, home, old age

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 28. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, home), 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:pg5615:28:13
# text = ‘If I could have let you go, and kept your eleven brothers at home, it would have been better for me in my old age.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	aux	_	_
6	let	let	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	eleven	eleven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	brothers	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux	_	_
21	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	cop	_	_
22	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	parataxis	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | could · perfect · passive |  | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | past |  | your eleven brothers |  | home |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent brother=Theme at home=Location |
| 4 | **is** | would · perfect | home |  |  |  | in my old age | for me; good *property* | tree rules |

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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 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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