---
title: If a man is fated to be unlucky, unlucky he will be, whatever he may… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If a man is fated to be unlucky, unlucky he will be, whatever he may do! Who acts: man, horse. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1, sentence 134

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If a man is fated to be unlucky, unlucky he will be, whatever he may do!

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**Who acts:** man, horse · **What happens:** be, do · **To what, where:** whatever

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Fairy of the Dawn, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, horse), 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:pg641:19:134
# text = If a man is fated to be unlucky, unlucky he will be, whatever he may do!
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	fated	fated	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	cop	_	_
8	unlucky	unlucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	unlucky	unlucky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
15	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	obj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a man |  |  |  |  | fated *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unlucky *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | a man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | may | horse | whatever |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whatever=Eventuality |

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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 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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