---
title: ‘I owe you my life and my release,’ he said, ‘for without you I shou… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘I owe you my life and my release,’ he said, ‘for without you I should never have regained my natural shape, and, indeed, would soon have been beheaded. Who acts: I, Jem. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/28/114/)

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, part 3, sentence 114

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘I owe you my life and my release,’ he said, ‘for without you I should never have regained my natural shape, and, indeed, would soon have been beheaded.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Jem · **What happens:** owe, say, not regain, behead · **To what, where:** life, you, natural shape · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The History of Dwarf Long Nose, 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 (I, Jem), 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:pg641:28:114
# text = ‘I owe you my life and my release,’ he said, ‘for without you I should never have regained my natural shape, and, indeed, would soon have been beheaded.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	owe	owe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	release	release	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
15	‘	‘	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	without	without	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
21	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	aux	_	_
23	regained	regain	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	shape	shape	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	indeed	indeed	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
33	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	36	advmod	_	_
34	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	aux	_	_
35	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	aux:pass	_	_
36	beheaded	behead	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **owe** | present | I | my life and my release | you |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent you=Goal life=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jem |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **regain** | should · perfect | I | my natural shape |  |  |  | for you | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Theme |
| 4 | **behead** | would · perfect · passive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | indeed, soon *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP» |

<!-- .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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