---
title: It lay with him to revenge himself, if he chose, on his brother, wit… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It lay with him to revenge himself, if he chose, on his brother, without the slightest danger to himself, and he told no one but his mother of all the strange things that had befallen him. Who acts: truth, youth, strange things. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Ring, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It lay with him to revenge himself, if he chose, on his brother, without the slightest danger to himself, and he told no one but his mother of all the strange things that had befallen him.

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**Who acts:** truth, youth, strange things · **What happens:** lie, choose, tell, befall · **To what, where:** revenge, one, youth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Ring. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (truth, youth, strange things), 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:pg7277:19:22
# text = It lay with him to revenge himself, if he chose, on his brother, without the slightest danger to himself, and he told no one but his mother of all the strange things that had befallen him.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	revenge	revenge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
7	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	6	nmod:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	chose	choose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	without	without	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	slightest	slight	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	20	amod	_	_
20	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
27	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	28	det	_	_
28	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
30	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	conj	_	_
32	of	of	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
33	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	36	det:predet	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nmod	_	_
37	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
38	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	befallen	befall	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	36	acl:relcl	_	_
40	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** | past | truth | revenge  youth |  |  |  | with youth | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **choose** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | youth |  |  |  |  | on youth's brother; without the slightest danger to youth | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | youth | no one but youth's mother of all strange things |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient |
| 4 | **befall** | past · perfect | all strange things | youth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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