---
title: "Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly, "you would probably ea… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: "Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly, "you would probably eat me if I did." Who acts: friend, you. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/13/86/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Indian Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/) / [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/13/) / 86

# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly, "you would probably eat me if I did."

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** friend, you · **What happens:** reply, eat, do · **To what, where:** Brahman, friend · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend, 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:pg7128:13:86
# text = "Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly, "you would probably eat me if I did."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Brahman	Brahman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	mildly	mildly	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	parataxis	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | my friend | the Brahman |  |  |  | mildly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | would | you | my friend *= friend* |  |  |  | probably *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | my friend *= friend* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/13/85/)
- next →: [sentence 87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/13/87/)
- ↑ back to [Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7128/13/)