--- title: If you can tell me what I hold in my left hand I shall let you go fr… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics description: If you can tell me what I hold in my left hand I shall let you go free; but if you fail to do so, I shall immediately kill you with this sword.” Who acts: you, I. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, How He Dislodged the Spider., with its dependency tree --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/24/44/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Folk tales from Tibet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/) / [How He Dislodged the Spider.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/24/) / 44 # Folk tales from Tibet, How He Dislodged the Spider., sentence 44 If you can tell me what I hold in my left hand I shall let you go free; but if you fail to do so, I shall immediately kill you with this sword.” **Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** tell, hold, let, go, fail, not do · **To what, where:** me, left hand, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, How He Dislodged the Spider.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg75000:24:44 # text = If you can tell me what I hold in my left hand I shall let you go free; but if you fail to do so, I shall immediately kill you with this sword.” 1 If if SCONJ IN _ 4 mark _ _ 2 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 4 nsubj _ _ 3 can can AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 4 aux _ _ 4 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 5 me I PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 4 iobj _ _ 6 what what PRON WP PronType=Int 4 obj _ _ 7 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 8 nsubj _ _ 8 hold hold VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 6 acl:relcl _ _ 9 in in ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 10 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 12 nmod:poss _ _ 11 left left ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 12 amod _ _ 12 hand hand NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 obl _ _ 13 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 15 nsubj _ _ 14 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 15 aux _ _ 15 let let VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 12 acl:relcl _ _ 16 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 15 obj _ _ 17 go go VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 15 xcomp _ _ 18 free free ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 17 xcomp _ SpaceAfter=No 19 ; ; PUNCT , _ 31 punct _ _ 20 but but CCONJ CC _ 31 cc _ _ 21 if if SCONJ IN _ 23 mark _ _ 22 you you PRON PRP Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs 23 nsubj _ _ 23 fail fail VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 31 advcl _ _ 24 to to PART TO _ 25 mark _ _ 25 do do VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 23 xcomp _ _ 26 so so ADV RB _ 25 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 27 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 28 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 29 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 31 aux _ _ 30 immediately immediately ADV RB _ 31 advmod _ _ 31 kill kill VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 conj _ _ 32 you you PRON PRP Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs 31 obj _ _ 33 with with ADP IN _ 35 case _ _ 34 this this DET DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 35 det _ _ 35 sword sword NOUN NN Number=Sing 31 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 36 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 37 ” " PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can | you | | me | | | what *obj* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient what=Topic | | 2 | **hold** | present | I | | | my left hand | | | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location | | 3 | **let** | shall | I | you | | | | | tree rules | | 4 | **go** | infinitive | you *not said here* | | | | | free *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 5 | **fail** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | you | | | | | | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | | 6 | **not** **do** | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | | | | | | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 7 | **kill** | shall | I | you | | | | with this sword; immediately *property* | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent you=Patient with sword=Instrument | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/24/43/) - next →: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/24/45/) - ↑ back to [How He Dislodged the Spider.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg75000/24/)