---
title: Should thy dancing please us, perhaps we may be able to do something… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Should thy dancing please us, perhaps we may be able to do something; but shouldst thou dance badly, we shall assuredly punish thee, so now take warning and dance away.’ Who acts: we, thou, thy. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs, with its depend
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Should thy dancing please us, perhaps we may be able to do something; but shouldst thou dance badly, we shall assuredly punish thee, so now take warning and dance away.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, thou, thy · **What happens:** be, do, dance, punish, take, dance away · **To what, where:** something, thee, warning

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (we, thou, thy), 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:pg7277:31:45
# text = Should thy dancing please us, perhaps we may be able to do something; but shouldst thou dance badly, we shall assuredly punish thee, so now take warning and dance away.’
1	Should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
2	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	dancing	dancing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	please	please	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
5	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	cop	_	_
11	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	shouldst	should	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
19	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
20	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	assuredly	assuredly	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
26	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	so	so	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	30	advmod	_	_
30	take	take	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	parataxis	_	_
31	warning	warning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
34	away	away	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | may | we |  |  |  |  | able, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | something |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Eventuality |
| 3 | **dance** | should | thou |  |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **punish** | shall | we | thee |  |  |  | assuredly *property* | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thou=Patient |
| 5 | **take** | present |  | warning |  |  | now |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent warning=Theme |
| 6 | **dance away** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **dance** |  | thy |  |  |  |  |  | nom dancing «act 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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