---
title: It would be nice of you to make a poor fellow happy; therefore you m… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: It would be nice of you to make a poor fellow happy; therefore you may tell your father that it was I who slew the dragon, and if you refuse to, I will throw you into the river, and no one will be any the wiser, for they will think the dragon has devoured you.’ Who acts: deliverer, you, I, one. A se
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Three Dogs, sentence 34

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It would be nice of you to make a poor fellow happy; therefore you may tell your father that it was I who slew the dragon, and if you refuse to, I will throw you into the river, and no one will be any the wiser, for they will think the dragon has devoured you.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** deliverer, you, I, one, carriage · **What happens:** be, make, tell, slay, refuse, throw · **To what, where:** father, I, dragon, you, river · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Three Dogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (deliverer, you, I, one), 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:pg7277:56:34
# text = It would be nice of you to make a poor fellow happy; therefore you may tell your father that it was I who slew the dragon, and if you refuse to, I will throw you into the river, and no one will be any the wiser, for they will think the dragon has devoured you.’
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	cop	_	_
4	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
10	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
11	fellow	fellow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	happy	happy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
18	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	iobj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
25	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
30	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
32	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	37	advcl	_	_
33	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
35	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	throw	throw	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
38	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	into	into	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
44	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	45	det	_	_
45	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
46	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
47	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	50	cop	_	_
48	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	50	det	_	_
49	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
50	wiser	wise	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	55	mark	_	_
53	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
54	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	55	aux	_	_
55	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
56	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	57	det	_	_
57	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	59	nsubj:pass	_	_
58	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	59	aux	_	_
59	devoured	devour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	55	ccomp	_	_
60	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	59	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would | deliverer |  |  |  |  | of you; nice *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** | to-infinitive | deliverer *not said here* |  |  |  |  | happy *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | may | you |  | your father |  |  | therefore *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent father=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** | past | deliverer | I |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **slay** | past | I | the dragon |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dragon=Patient |
| 6 | **refuse** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **throw** | future | I | you |  |  |  | into the river *result* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer you=Theme into river=Result |
| 8 | **is** | future | no one |  |  |  |  | wise *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **think** *speech: other* | future | carriage |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 10 | **devour** | present · perfect · passive |  | the dragon |  |  |  |  | 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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