---
title: ‘My father is ill, and he cannot be cured unless I bring him back th… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘My father is ill, and he cannot be cured unless I bring him back the Golden Blackbird. Who acts: father, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 27

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‘My father is ill, and he cannot be cured unless I bring him back the Golden Blackbird.

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**Who acts:** father, I · **What happens:** be, not cure, bring back · **To what, where:** father, Golden Blackbird

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, 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:pg7277:21:27
# text = ‘My father is ill, and he cannot be cured unless I bring him back the Golden Blackbird.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	cured	cure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
13	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	bring	bring	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	back	back	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	Golden	golden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	Blackbird	Blackbird	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | My father |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **cure** | can · passive |  | father |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Source |
| 3 | **bring back** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | I | the Golden Blackbird | father |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination blackbird=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 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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