---
title: But if I were you I should take the advice that was given me and rid… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: But if I were you I should take the advice that was given me and ride the snail.’ Who acts: I. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 2, sentence 58

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But if I were you I should take the advice that was given me and ride the snail.’

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, take, give, ride · **To what, where:** you, advice, me, snail

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, 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 (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:pg7277:37:58
# text = But if I were you I should take the advice that was given me and ride the snail.’
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	advcl	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
14	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	iobj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	ride	ride	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	snail	snail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | I | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **take** | should | I | the advice |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advice=Theme |
| 3 | **give** | past · passive |  | the advice | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Theme |
| 4 | **ride** | present | I *not said here* | the snail |  |  |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent snail=Theme |

<!-- .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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