---
title: If I were to send one of the ministers!--but I hardly know if I can… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If I were to send one of the ministers!--but I hardly know if I can depend on them.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Lute Player, sentence 13

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If I were to send one of the ministers!--but I hardly know if I can depend on them.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** send, know, depend · **To what, where:** one

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I), 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:pg641:8:13
# text = If I were to send one of the ministers!--but I hardly know if I can depend on them.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	advcl	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ministers	minister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	hardly	hardly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	depend	depend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
20	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | one of the ministers |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  | hardly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **depend** *a condition, not said to happen* | can | I |  |  |  |  | on ministers *= minister* | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent on they=Theme |

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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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