---
title: “Please don’t eat us now; but if you will wait till the autumn, when… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “Please don’t eat us now; but if you will wait till the autumn, when we shall both be very much fatter than we are now, you can eat us with much more benefit to yourself on our return journey.” Who acts: you, we, our. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, 
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare., sentence 8

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“Please don’t eat us now; but if you will wait till the autumn, when we shall both be very much fatter than we are now, you can eat us with much more benefit to yourself on our return journey.”

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**Who acts:** you, we, our · **What happens:** not eat, wait, be, eat, journey · **To what, where:** us, return journey

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This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Sheep, the Lamb, the Wolf and the Hare.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, we, our), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg75000:11:8
# text = “Please don’t eat us now; but if you will wait till the autumn, when we shall both be very much fatter than we are now, you can eat us with much more benefit to yourself on our return journey.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Please	please	INTJ	UH	_	5	discourse	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	eat	eat	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	till	till	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	autumn	autumn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
18	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
19	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
20	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
21	both	both	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
22	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
23	very	very	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
24	much	much	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	fatter	fat	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	parataxis	_	_
26	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
34	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	with	with	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	much	much	ADV	RB	_	37	advmod	_	_
37	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	38	amod	_	_
38	benefit	benefit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	yourself	yourself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	38	nmod	_	_
41	on	on	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
42	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	44	nmod:poss	_	_
43	return	return	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	_
44	journey	journey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **eat** *in a quote* | imperative · do-support | you *not said here* | us |  |  | now |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 2 | **wait** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | future | you |  |  |  | autumn |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | shall | we |  |  |  |  | both, fat *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | now *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **eat** *in a quote* | can | you | us |  | our return journey |  | with more benefit to yourself | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Patient |
| 6 | **journey** *in a quote* |  | our |  |  |  |  |  | nom journey «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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:** «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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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