---
title: If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve maidens to… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve maidens to the King of the Beasts, your country will very soon be ruined. Who acts: you. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3, sentence 109

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If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve maidens to the King of the Beasts, your country will very soon be ruined.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** go, send, ruin · **To what, where:** twelve youths, King, country

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Donkey Cabbage, part 3. 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:pg640:12:109
# text = If you go on every year sending twelve youths and twelve maidens to the King of the Beasts, your country will very soon be ruined.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	26	advcl	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	sending	send	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
8	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	youths	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	12	nummod	_	_
12	maidens	maiden	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	Beasts	Beast	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
20	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj:pass	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	ruined	ruin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  | year |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **send** | gerund | you *not said here* | twelve youths and twelve maidens | the King of the Beasts |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent youth=Theme to king=Destination |
| 3 | **ruin** | future · passive |  | your country |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: subject=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 Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 640 (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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