---
title: If I had my old eye which broke off, I believe I could weep; but I c… — The Yellow Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If I had my old eye which broke off, I believe I could weep; but I can’t--it is not fine to weep!’ Who acts: I, old eye. A sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Story About a Darning-needle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Yellow Fairy Book, A Story About a Darning-needle, sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If I had my old eye which broke off, I believe I could weep; but I can’t--it is not fine to weep!’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, old eye · **What happens:** have, break off, believe, weep, not be · **To what, where:** old eye · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, A Story About a Darning-needle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, old eye), 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:pg640:51:67
# text = If I had my old eye which broke off, I believe I could weep; but I can’t--it is not fine to weep!’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	expl	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	weep	weep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	csubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | I | my old eye |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **break off** | past | my old eye |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **believe** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **weep** | could | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **is** | can |  |  |  |  |  | fine *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **weep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=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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