---
title: “Well, then, you can kill me if you like, for I am as much in your p… — Folk tales from Tibet · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, then, you can kill me if you like, for I am as much in your power as though I were a fly which you hold in your left hand and which you can crush at your pleasure.” Who acts: you, Boy, fly, your. A sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, How He Dislodge
---

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# Folk tales from Tibet, How He Dislodged the Spider., sentence 47

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“Well, then, you can kill me if you like, for I am as much in your power as though I were a fly which you hold in your left hand and which you can crush at your pleasure.”

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**Who acts:** you, Boy, fly, your · **What happens:** kill, like, be, hold, crush, please · **To what, where:** Boy, power, fly, left hand, pleasure

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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, Boy, fly, your), 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:pg75000:24:47
# text = “Well, then, you can kill me if you like, for I am as much in your power as though I were a fly which you hold in your left hand and which you can crush at your pleasure.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	8	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	as	as	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	as	as	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
23	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	fly	fly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	hold	hold	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	parataxis	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	left	left	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
35	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
36	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	39	nsubj	_	_
37	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
38	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	39	aux	_	_
39	crush	crush	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
40	at	at	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** *in a quote* | can | you | Boy |  |  | then |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 2 | **like** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Boy |  |  | your power |  | much *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | Boy | a fly |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hold** *in a quote* | present | a fly |  |  | your left hand |  | you *nsubj* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Location |
| 6 | **crush** *in a quote* | can |  |  |  | your pleasure |  | which *nsubj*; you *nsubj* | vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **please** *in a quote* |  | your |  |  |  |  |  | nom pleasure «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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:** «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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