---
title: The voice replied, ‘Very well; but it will go ill with you if you fa… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The voice replied, ‘Very well; but it will go ill with you if you fail to keep your promise.’ Who acts: voice, you, your. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 25

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The voice replied, ‘Very well; but it will go ill with you if you fail to keep your promise.’

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**Who acts:** voice, you, your · **What happens:** reply, go, fail, not keep, promise · **To what, where:** promise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (voice, you, your), 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:pg7277:27:25
# text = The voice replied, ‘Very well; but it will go ill with you if you fail to keep your promise.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
13	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	_
14	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	fail	fail	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	promise	promise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle | the voice |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** | future | voice |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **keep** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | your promise |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent promise=Theme |
| 5 | **promise** |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom promise «communication transitive»: poss=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.

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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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