---
title: But if he fails to keep the foal and its mother safe on any one of t… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But if he fails to keep the foal and its mother safe on any one of the three nights his head will pay.’ Who acts: man, head. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples, sentence 88

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But if he fails to keep the foal and its mother safe on any one of the three nights his head will pay.’

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**Who acts:** man, head · **What happens:** fail, not keep, pay · **To what, where:** foal, three nights

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, head), 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:pg641:7:88
# text = But if he fails to keep the foal and its mother safe on any one of the three nights his head will pay.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	fails	fail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	foal	foal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
12	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	nights	night	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fail** | present | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **keep** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | the foal and present's mother |  |  |  | on any one of the three nights; safe *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent foal=Theme on one=Location |
| 3 | **pay** | future | man's head | the three nights *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent night=Asset |

<!-- .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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