---
title: Rather, if it must be, would we do it ourselves. — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Rather, if it must be, would we do it ourselves. Who acts: we. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, 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/pg5615/37/8/)

<!-- 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 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/) / 8

# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Rather, if it must be, would we do it ourselves.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** do · **To what, where:** eldest

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 37. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we), 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:pg5615:37:8
# text = Rather, if it must be, would we do it ourselves.
1	Rather	Rather	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	ourselves	ourselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | would | we | eldest *= eld* |  |  |  | Rather *vocative*; ourselves *obl:unmarked* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/7/)
- next →: [sentence 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/9/)
- ↑ back to [The Pink Fairy Book, part 37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/37/)