---
title: You must cut the branch on which it is sitting, and bring it back to… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: You must cut the branch on which it is sitting, and bring it back to me without delay. Who acts: You, branch. 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 13

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You must cut the branch on which it is sitting, and bring it back to me without delay.

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**Who acts:** You, branch · **What happens:** cut, sit, bring back · **To what, where:** branch, me

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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, branch), 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:pg640:12:13
# text = You must cut the branch on which it is sitting, and bring it back to me without delay.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obl	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	back	back	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
18	without	without	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	delay	delay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut** | must | You | the branch |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent branch=Product |
| 2 | **sit** | present · progressive | branch |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on which=Location |
| 3 | **bring back** | infinitive | You *not said here* | branch | me |  |  | without delay | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to i=Destination |

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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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