---
title: ‘Why, if you do that,’ replied the snake, ‘we shall be no better tha… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Why, if you do that,’ replied the snake, ‘we shall be no better than the vipers and reptiles, and that’s not what I want at all. Who acts: you, we, that, I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Enchanted Snake, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
‘Why, if you do that,’ replied the snake, ‘we shall be no better than the vipers and reptiles, and that’s not what I want at all.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, we, that, I · **What happens:** do, reply, not be, want · **To what, where:** that, snake, all

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Enchanted Snake. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, we, that, I), 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:pg7277:25:9
# text = ‘Why, if you do that,’ replied the snake, ‘we shall be no better than the vipers and reptiles, and that’s not what I want at all.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
10	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	cop	_	_
18	no	no	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	parataxis	_	_
20	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	vipers	viper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	reptiles	reptile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	30	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obl	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	want	want	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
33	at	at	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
34	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past |  | the snake |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent snake=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **is** | shall | we |  |  |  |  | than the vipers and reptiles; good *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **is a** | present | that |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **want** | present | I |  |  | all |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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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