---
title: If she had dared, she would have killed the sparrow then and there,… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If she had dared, she would have killed the sparrow then and there, but as it was she only ventured to slit its tongue. Who acts: woman, it. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/60/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Pink Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/) / [The Pink Fairy Book, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/) / 60

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36, sentence 60

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If she had dared, she would have killed the sparrow then and there, but as it was she only ventured to slit its tongue.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** woman, it · **What happens:** dare, kill, be, slit · **To what, where:** woman, tongue

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 36. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, it), 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:pg5615:36:60
# text = If she had dared, she would have killed the sparrow then and there, but as it was she only ventured to slit its tongue.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	dared	dare	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
9	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	only	only	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	ventured	venture	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	slit	slit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
25	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dare** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **kill** | would · perfect · passive |  | woman |  |  | then |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer sparrow=Result |
| 3 | **is** | past | it |  |  |  |  | venture *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **slit** | to-infinitive |  | Sparrow's tongue |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/59/)
- next →: [sentence 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/61/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/36/)