---
title: But people say, “If you want to do any one good, don’t do him good o… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But people say, “If you want to do any one good, don’t do him good only, do him evil also, and there will be peace between you.” Who acts: people, you. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Story of a Gazelle, sentence 197

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But people say, “If you want to do any one good, don’t do him good only, do him evil also, and there will be peace between you.”

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**Who acts:** people, you · **What happens:** say, want, do, not do, evil, be · **To what, where:** one, cannon, peace · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of a Gazelle. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg641:15:197
# text = But people say, “If you want to do any one good, don’t do him good only, do him evil also, and there will be peace between you.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	obj	_	_
13	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
15	do	do	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
18	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	obj	_	_
20	only	only	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	do	do	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	evil	evil	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
25	also	also	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	30	expl	_	_
29	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	cop	_	_
31	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
32	between	between	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **want** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 3 | **do** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | any one |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **do** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support | people *not said here* | cannon |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | cannon |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 6 | **evil** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive | people *not said here* | peace |  |  |  | between you | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (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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