---
title: Whatever you do, don’t follow her if she calls you, but on the contr… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Whatever you do, don’t follow her if she calls you, but on the contrary say to her, “The buyer comes to the seller, not the seller to the buyer.” Who acts: you, mermaid, buyer. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of eve
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Whatever you do, don’t follow her if she calls you, but on the contrary say to her, “The buyer comes to the seller, not the seller to the buyer.”

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**Who acts:** you, mermaid, buyer · **What happens:** do, not follow, call, come · **To what, where:** Whatever, mermaid, you, seller · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (you, mermaid, buyer), 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:pg7277:52:61
# text = Whatever you do, don’t follow her if she calls you, but on the contrary say to her, “The buyer comes to the seller, not the seller to the buyer.”
1	Whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	obj	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	follow	follow	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	calls	call	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	contrary	contrary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	say	say	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	parataxis	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	buyer	buyer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	seller	seller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
30	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	seller	seller	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	appos	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	buyer	buyer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | present | you | Whatever |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whatever=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **follow** | imperative · do-support | you *not said here* | mermaid |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme |
| 3 | **call** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | mermaid |  | you |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient |
| 4 | **come** *in a quote* | present | the buyer |  |  | the seller |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to seller=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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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