---
title: If you should ever need my help, throw it into the river, and I will… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If you should ever need my help, throw it into the river, and I will come to your aid at once.’ Who acts: you, I, my. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2, sentence 64

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If you should ever need my help, throw it into the river, and I will come to your aid at once.’

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**Who acts:** you, I, my · **What happens:** need, throw, come, help · **To what, where:** help, river, aid

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Witch and Her Servants(22), part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I, my), 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:pg640:31:64
# text = If you should ever need my help, throw it into the river, and I will come to your aid at once.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	5	advmod	_	_
5	need	need	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	help	help	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	throw	throw	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	aid	aid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	at	at	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **need** *a condition, not said to happen* | should | you | my help |  |  | ever |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot help=Theme |
| 2 | **throw** | imperative | you *not said here* | help |  |  |  | into the river *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer it=Theme into river=Result |
| 3 | **come** | future | I |  |  | your aid |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to aid=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **help** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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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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