---
title: If he did it so much the better for you, and if he didn’t, matters w… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: If he did it so much the better for you, and if he didn’t, matters would just be as they are now and he could still be hanged.’ Who acts: emperor. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 33

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If he did it so much the better for you, and if he didn’t, matters would just be as they are now and he could still be hanged.’

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**Who acts:** emperor · **What happens:** do, not do, matter, hange · **To what, where:** task, princes

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This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (emperor), 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:pg7277:52:33
# text = If he did it so much the better for you, and if he didn’t, matters would just be as they are now and he could still be hanged.’
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	much	much	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
9	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
18	matters	matter	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	csubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
20	just	just	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux:pass	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux:pass	_	_
25	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	31	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
29	still	still	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
30	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	aux:pass	_	_
31	hanged	hange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | emperor | task |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | emperor |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **matter** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **hange** | could · passive |  | princes *= prince* |  |  | now; still |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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