---
title: ‘No, father; you may cut off my head, if you choose, but marry that… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘No, father; you may cut off my head, if you choose, but marry that horrible beggar--I never will!’ Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, 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/pg5615/39/59/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39, sentence 59

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‘No, father; you may cut off my head, if you choose, but marry that horrible beggar--I never will!’

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** cut off, choose, marry · **To what, where:** head, horrible beggar

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 39. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you), 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:pg5615:39:59
# text = ‘No, father; you may cut off my head, if you choose, but marry that horrible beggar--I never will!’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	appos	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
20	horrible	horrible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	beggar	beggar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut off** | may | you | my head |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
| 2 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **marry** | infinitive | you *not said here* | that horrible beggar |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beggar=Patient |

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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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